Creating Spaces To Promote Extend Campus Use: Revitalizing Universities Through Student Life

Abstract

For most parents, the goal for their child is to finish high school and attend a fabulous university and for students, this is begins a new chapter in their life. However, as some students go off to ivy-league schools and other stay home to attend local in-state colleges, more often than not, the fate of the student and their relationship to their respective college has been decided. Students that participate in an active, energetic student life will often times, have a ‘more enjoyable’ college experience, resulting in school spirit, pride and respect; not to mention future alumni donations. Alternatively, students who don’t have that ‘enjoyable experience’ readily available will withdraw to focusing on a single goal; to get out of school as soon as possible. Particularly looking at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UH Manoa), there are many university-guided offices and student-run organizations that facilitate and promote student life and recreation, but because a majority of students at UH Manoa are resident commuter students, most commute to school just for class, then leave. This mentality consumes most commuter students because they are able to freely come and go as pleased and this problem has eluded the University because the student lifestyle and recreational facilities don’t provide any benefits to commuter students. After reviewing existing literature, I have gathered “that what students gain from their college experience depends a lot on how time and effort students put into their studies and other purposeful activities.”1 A prediction geared towards commuters students theorize that they are distracted by competing demands on their schedules. This project aims to focus at providing design solutions to further enhance social spaces around the university campus, through both technical integration of data and theory and also user participation. Social spaces throughout the campus help facilitate student progress and outreach.