What Are the Campus Growth Needs?

Interviews with administrators at AHEC, the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and University of Colorado Denver, students and faculty from the three schools, and representatives of the City showed generally shared perspectives and critically important concerns about the campus growth.  In summary, interviewees agree that student population growth in the last two decades has outpaced growth of facilities, creating a problem of overcrowding and insufficient space for the provision of certain services. They also described a strong interest in enhancing physical and programmatic connections between the AHEC institutions and the City. Specifically, they described the need to address the following growth objectives:

• Students' interest in on-campus student life activities (greater than previously expressed by AHEC students).
• New student life needs are generated by UCD's new residential program.
• While each schools has its own student life needs and interests, the general opinion is that they are underserved for sports and recreation, small meeting spaces for study groups and clubs, and casual hanging out/meeting places. 
• Campus safety should be improved.
• The campus needs improved services for its population of over 1000 disabled students.
• Information technology infrastructure needs updating.
• Academic space is overcrowded.  More use of the campus on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays can relieve this problem to a limited extent.  The design of new space needs to align with consideration of academic growth; specifically, interdisciplinary learning and teaching will be increased in the next decade. 
• There is an unmet demand for "smart classrooms" and for on–line classes.
• The campus needs more technology labs to accommodate students who don't own or have computers with them when on campus.
• The library, while very good, is overcrowded and needs to extend its hours of operation.
• An increasing number of students are relying on light rail for their commute to campus. Given that, the campus master plan should look for opportunities to build near to the light rail stations.
• The campus has insufficient office space for faculty.
• The campus has insufficient meeting space for all variety of size of groups.
• Campus signage needs improvement. Streets near the campus and the campus itself needs improvement to better accommodate bicyclists.
• Campus drop-off sites need improvement. They are undersized and /or less safe to access and use than desired.
• Pedestrian access across Kolfax and Speer needs improvement to enhance pedestrian safety.
• Timing is ideal for the campus master plan update to influence and/or reinforce City plans for growth.
• The campus master plan update should expect increased access to the campus via public transportation.  This allows the plan to decrease play on campus.
• The campus master plans update should indicate means of make the campus sustainable.