version: 01
Course description
The college campus as we know it is an American invention, and is a microcosm of American community planning as well as a reflection of uniquely American attitudes toward education. At different times in our history, colleges have been used for economic development, as symbols of civic importance, and as tools of major social change. With each of these roles there has been an associated attitude toward the physical design and development of the campus itself.
It is interesting to note that the word campus was not included in the great Oxford English Dictionary of 1897. It did appear in the OED supplement of 1933:
Campus U.S. [L. campus field. First used at Princeton] The grounds of a college or university; the open space between or around the buildings.
1774 in J. F. Hagement Hist. of Princeton (1879) I, 102. Having made a fire on the Campus, we there burnt near a dozen pounds [of tea]...
This course will focus on this interaction of American social history and the changing American campus, and also look at the specifics issues of contemporary campus design, using the UO campus as an example and working laboratory. We will also be looking at issues affecting the contemporary campus: Why is the campus the way it is? What will influence its future? These issues may include transportation systems, public images, information systems, and the basic nature of post-secondary learning itself.
This examination will include how places in general are created and how they evolve, how they take on their own importance, and how they become much more than simple shelter. It will also involve specific proposals for improvement and intervention, some of which we may choose to implement. Why do we like some places and not others? How do we make places, and how do we attach ourselves to places? How is the relationship of person and place made?
The course will use the seminar format of reading and discussion structured around field investigations and interventions. There will be weekly assignments for the first seven or eight weeks of the course, but no large project or final exam.
Course requirements and grading criteria
1. Complete the assigned reading before each class session, and complete a reading response sheet periodically.
2. Attend class and contribute to discussions and in-class exercises [25% of grade]. The discussions will be about the lectures and reading and, during the latter parts of the term, about the progress of the research papers. If you miss more than three class sessions for whatever reason, your contribution to this seminar, the seminar's contribution to your education, and your grade will all suffer. If you have missed three classes, please meet with me promptly to discuss your participation in the class and possible ways to compensate for your absence. Without compensation, three absences will lower your grade by one full level (e.g. from B to C).
3. Keep a journal (described below). [10%]
4. Complete the full series of short projects (probably about seven). In many of the in-class exercises and short projects you will be working in groups.
Please note that I take seriously the grading criteria published in the schedule of classes. "A" grades are given for excellence, which I associate with originality and quality (of research, of presentation, of logic, etc). You may find that grading at the University of Oregon is more rigorous than your previous experiences. I'll be honest and tell you that you will have to work hard to get an "A" in this class. On the other hand, it is impossible to fail if you complete the assignments with a genuine effort. If you have concerns about grading, please discuss them with me the first week of classes.
Journals
Students must keep a journal for the class (or an equivalent approved by the instructor). This will be a place to keep class notes, sketches, research materials, returned work, rough drafts and so forth, as well as reading notes, reactions to what's going on in class, and anything else that may pertain. I may ask to review these journals once or twice during the term. At the end of the term, I will review the journals, exercises, and projects with each student individually.
Field trips
In addition to walks around the UO campus and possibly other trips during class, we may schedule a field trip later in the term. We will discuss this the first week of class.
Exams
There will be no formal exams, although there will be both in-class exercises as well as take-home projects. There will be no formal final exam. The class may choose to use part or all of the exam period to review each other's projects or for some other purpose.
Help
If you need help or advice at any time, please ask. I'd much rather hear from you before the crisis rather than during or after it. If you need special assistance due to a disability, please discuss it with me either after class, by phone, or in my office, or call the Counselor for Students with Disabilities at 346-3211.
Approximate course outline (certain to change)
Part 1, Introduction to Campuses
Week 1: Getting started, and introduction to the contemporary campus
introductions to each other, to the subject, to the expectations of the students and instructor.
-campuses as microcosms of community design
identifying major issues in the modern American campus.
how to explore the digital campus
introduction to the University libraries and on-line sources
in-class exercises:
- cognitive mapping
short projects:
basic skills of reading plans and maps, drawing lines, and scaling
capsule environmental biographies issued
Week 2: Outline history of the American campus
•a condensed history of college campus design, front to back
•n-class exercise: Sim Campus 1880
•short projects:
- WWW campus scavenger hunt: sites issued
- campus histories project
Week 3: Image of the campus
•contemporary use of image, creation of image, marketing of image
•exercises: image research
•short projects:
- discovered places
Week 4: Places in the contemporary campus
•Making places for people: why are some places pleasant and serve our needs well, yet others are failures?
•exercises: place preference overlays
•short projects:
- place intervention/creation/repair
Part 2, History of Campuses and Open Space in America
Week 5: Early campus history, colonial and early American campuses up to 1820
•Western traditions of planned communities.
•Capsule history of Western gardens.
•Origins of the modern western university (Paris, Oxford, etc).
•Establishment of colleges in the American colonies.
•Enlightenment theory and the democratic survey grid.
•Development of the concept of campus, or area set aside exclusively for a college. Relationship to other planned developments, especially to Renaissance and Enlightenment planning in France and England such Italian villas, public gardens and plazas in Sienna and Paris, French palaces and gardens by Le Notre and others, Royal Crescent in Bath, etc. William and Mary, Harvard, Yale, University of Virginia, Ramée's Union College, University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina
•short project:
- identification of early campus elements at UO
Week 6: Omsted and the American park, 1860-1890
•The American Land Grant college. Frederick Law Olmsted and English romantic gardens. The 19th century American park. The suburb. University of Maine, Iowa State, Michigan State, Olmsted's Berkeley plan, pre-1910 development of University of Oregon and Oregon State.
•U. of O. Old Campus quadrangle (Deady, Villard, Fenton, Friendly, etc), OSU original campus
•short project:
- identification of Olstedian campus elements at UO
Week 7: the Beaux Arts/City Beautiful campus, 1880-1940
•The planned city, and the merging of campus planning with city planning.
•University of California/Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Washington, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Rice Institute, Reed College, Olmsted Brothers and A.D. Taylor's Oregon State University.
•U. of O.'s Memorial (or Library) quadrangle, Lawrence UO plans
•short project:
- identification of Beaux Arts campus elements at UO
Week 8: Modernism and Post Modernism, 1940 to present
•Post-Modernism and historic preservation: the re-examination of and return to earlier traditions. Master plans from Stanford, Rice, Oregon State University, Lewis and Clark, Harvard.
•U. of O.'s Long Range Development plan, Science Facilities "quadrangle"
•Participatory planning and Christopher Alexander's The Oregon Experiment.
•exercises: making places with patterns
•Modernism and campus plans. Post-World War II expansion. Functionalist plans. Commuter colleges and community colleges.
•development of the urban campus type.
•Lane Community College and other community colleges
•U. of O.'s "cross Agate" residence halls, Lackey plan for UO.
•exercises: SimCampus/1955, SimCampus/1965,
•short projects: summary campus histories due
Part 3, the Future American Campus
Week 9: Creating the contemporary campus
•environmental issues: energy consumption, recycling, materials, transportation
•universal accessibility issues and changing demographics
•exercise: Sim Campus 2000
Week 10: The electronic campus
•The rise of virtual communities and the decline of local characteristics
•Distance learning, the non-campus
•Alternative models and the impact on campuses as places: field placement colleges, cable delivery institutions, life-experience credit
•exercises: to be announced
The export of the campus concept
•Corporate "campuses", industrial "parks", etc.
•Intervention project reviews
Course evaluations
Finals week: Final "exam" as agreed upon by the students and instructor by the second week of the term. In the past this has ranged from an informal good-bye chat to one more iteration of SimCampus.
Reading
The primary and required text for the course will be Paul Venable Turner's Campus, an American Planning Tradition (MIT Press, 1984), which is the first comprehensive attempt at setting the history of American campus planning into a theoretical framework. Other materials will be available on reserve in the Knight Library. A reading list will be distributed the first week, with at least one update as the term progresses.
The reading may also include materials made available electronically. This will be covered with a separate handout on how to connect to this material, how to use it, and why it is being presented in electronic format.