CAMPUS PLANNING - Roger Williams University
CAMPUS PLANNING - Roger Williams University
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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