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CAMPUS PLANNING - Roger Williams University

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2002-2003 RWU Presidential Fellowship Report: Campus Planning<br />

Preface<br />

“The delicate thing about the university is<br />

that it has a mixed character, that it is<br />

suspended between its position in the<br />

external world, with all its corruption and<br />

evils and cruelties, and the splendid world<br />

of our imagination.” Richard Hofstadter, Columbia<br />

<strong>University</strong><br />

This document is a product of a yearlong RWU Presidential<br />

Fellowship, established by Roy J. Nirschel to involve<br />

faculty in the advancement of key initiatives embodied,<br />

either explicitly or implicitly, in the university’s ongoing<br />

strategic planning process. It was indeed an honor to be<br />

counted among the initial recipients and am most grateful<br />

to President Nirschel for this opportunity and for<br />

establishing a climate that supports and encourages faculty<br />

initiative and seeks to engage faculty more directly, not<br />

only in shaping future <strong>Roger</strong> <strong>Williams</strong> Alumni; but also in<br />

shaping the physical and intellectual environment that<br />

supports us as we do that important work.<br />

This 2003 RWU Campus Planning Fellowship Report<br />

arises out of a myriad of unique circumstances that have<br />

informed this work and establish an essential backdrop for<br />

the ideas represented herein. The role of a campus<br />

planning document, however, is to be prospective and not<br />

to be too rooted in the seemingly inextricable challenges of<br />

the moment. That said, this document tries to walk a line<br />

between the particular needs and aspirations of a particular<br />

university at a particular time in its development; and the<br />

traditions and forms that have shaped the development of<br />

this unique form of community in a more general sense. It<br />

is not an official Master Planning document; however since<br />

that document is not informed by the level or range of<br />

design intentions that the campus deserves it should be seen<br />

as part of larger master planning process.<br />

I would also like to acknowledge the fact that this effort<br />

was in many ways the first official acknowledgement of the<br />

work of many faculty and students who have, over the<br />

years, attempted to contribute to the shaping of the unique<br />

environment we steward. This important work has been<br />

carried out in studios, research seminars, and more recently<br />

through committees at various levels within the university.<br />

This is my third studio on campus and my second to look at<br />

it from a campus planning perspective. I am especially<br />

indebted to Ulker Copur for her important research and<br />

analysis of the campus and to Dean Stephen White. Many<br />

of the ideas represented in this document evolved from the<br />

work of the Facilities Task Force during the 2002 Strategic<br />

Planning sessions that Dean White co-chaired.<br />

This document is a Campus Planning document and does<br />

not reflect the full scope of a Master Planning document. It<br />

does not attempt to be comprehensive in scope; however,<br />

the strategies it employs do aspire to a comprehensive<br />

reach. This, hopefully, can be most clearly seen in the<br />

attempt to place this document within the context of a more<br />

inclusive, more comprehensive and more integrated<br />

approach to planning for the future needs of the <strong>University</strong><br />

community. In recognition of the importance of the above,<br />

I have included a summary of the research I conducted into<br />

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