A community college located in Ohio with campuses in both Steubenville and Youngstown Ohio, selected DRAW to prepare their facilities master plan. In recent years, the college has undergone a period of significant growth in their online programs with online enrollment increasing from 5,500 students in 2016 to 47,000 in 2021. Over this time, in-person enrollment has declined to around 3,500 students across both campuses. Ensuring that the on-campus students are served by facilities that met their needs and reflected the community-based nature of the community college is the top priority for the facilities master plan.
Through interviews and discussions with the college faculty and administrators, two overarching themes have emerged: the need to create connections with local communities, and the importance of bringing students back to campus for in-person learning. To enhance connections with local communities, DRAW created options for site development that would improve the visibility into the campuses and increase the prominence of the college’s buildings within the community. DRAW also worked with the community college to look at the spaces required for new programs that would be more relevant to the needs of community members.
Even prior to the COVID pandemic, many community colleges were facing declining numbers of in person students as interest in online learning increased. The pandemic further accelerated the trend towards online learning as faculty and students were forced online and became more comfortable with online learning. While the college has benefited from a large increase in online enrollment, like many community colleges it was faced with a dilemma of what to do with those students who prefer to learn in person.
The master plan for the college attempted to address the declining number of in-person students in two ways: by creating more inviting places for students to “hang out” while on campus, and by enhancing spaces for the more “hands-on” programs such as nursing, emergency medicine, and welding.
DRAW developed a plan to incorporate these spaces into the college’s existing facilities, in many cases replacing underused traditional classroom spaces. By providing additional program spaces for in-person learning and more areas for students to congregate between classes, energy and life would ideally return to the college’s buildings which will help to drive enrollment gains.
