The Plan for Facilities, Space and Equipment

Space and facilities that instill a sense of pride among faculty, staff and students are a necessity. An aesthetically pleasing, efficient, and comfortable living, learning, and working environment will enhance learning community interactions.

Goal 1: To promote an attractive, safe, healthy and environmentally responsible living, learning, working environment which facilitates intellectual, social, and physical pursuits.

Every student, faculty and staff member at Winona State should be guaranteed a safe living and working environment.

In addition to supporting continuing efforts promoting campus safety, Winona State also should maintain attractive and functional spaces for intellectual, social, and physical pursuits. The library must be improved. Obtaining a new facility should be a major objective, but in the meantime, the existing library needs to include more attractive spaces for intellectual activities such as reading and group discussions. Ways in which the library can best accommodate non-traditional learners should also be examined.

Though the Commons building offers several spaces designed for social interaction, academic buildings also should facilitate such informal interaction between students and faculty through the presence of student study areas and lounges.

Facilities for physical activities should be maintained and their use by both students and faculty encouraged.

Goal 2: To create residence halls which are self-contained living / learning units.

A residence hall is not just a place to sleep but a place to experience a wide variety of academic and social experiences. Residence Halls need to become integrated more fully into the academic life of the university, as places for individual and group study. They should have computer facilities, quiet study and group study spaces, and recreational areas.

Faculty should be encouraged to participate in residence hall programming through informal discussions, study groups, and the like. The Residential College could serve as a model for the rest of the university in this respect.

Goal 3 : To create academic buildings which insure appropriate space for programs and curriculum delivery methods (i.e. labs, lecture rooms, faculty offices, etc.)

Academic buildings need to be thought of as more than just a collection of lecture rooms which accommodate from 30 to 200 students. Alternative curriculum delivery methods need to be considered when designing learning space.

Space for individual study as well as collaborative learning need to be incorporated into each academic building. WSU should insure that each discipline be provided with adequate and appropriate laboratories. These laboratories should be found in both the sciences and the liberal arts, business, and education. These labs need to be designed to allow student opportunities to practice skills that they are learning in the classroom.

Faculty offices need to be accessible to students and insure privacy for faculty and students as well as afford appropriate furnishings for faculty to accomplish their work.

WSU needs to continue to lobby legislators for a new library designed to meet the changing needs of our students and faculty and to accommodate up-to-date learning technologies.

Goal 4: To acquire, provide, implement, and maintain up-to-date technology and resources for teaching and administration.

Though Winona State has tried to keep pace with the latest technology and maintain up-to-date resources, budget restrictions combined with inflation have made it difficult to maintain up-to-date equipment and resources. To continue to offer high quality programs, a concerted effort should be made to provide each faculty member, administrator, and course with technology and resources to facilitate both teaching and research. Opportunities to secure grants or gifts should be explored to help facilitate the achievement of this goal.

Goal 5: To proceed with the physical expansion of the university within the master plan of the university.

The Master Plan of the university should be implemented. This plan calls for the redesign of the campus incorporating more 'green space' by eliminating many of the streets inside campus. Such a plan would not only be safer for students, but would also create a stronger 'campus' atmosphere vital to the sense of community.

A systematic plan of land acquisition needs to be developed which would allow the creation of significant parking for students, faculty and staff commuting to campus. At the same time, land use around the campus should be analyzed carefully. WSU should be sensitive to the needs of the surrounding residential areas and should not encourage the encroachment of traffic and parking in residential areas.

Goal 6: To develop and maintain library facilities that meet the resource needs of students and faculty (books, materials, technology, staff and space).

A University library is an asset and resource not only to the university but also the surrounding community. It should be an asset that individuals find both aesthetically pleasing and functional. It is a focal point of the academic community. A library needs to reflect the diverse resource needs of the faculty and staff of the university. Not only should it contain up-to-date resources and technology, but also spaces for individual and group study, word processing, and relaxation. Support professionals must be on hand to assist all individuals.

Return to Long Range Planning Page