summary of Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces by: Kathleen G Scholl, Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi

More and more students are going to school. By 2019, enrollments are expected to rise 9% for students under age 25, and rise 23% for students over the age of 25 (Snyder & Dillow, 2011).Today’s American campuses are expected to reflect an academic life. Throughout  the entire campus should be the opportunities for students to  to have learning spaces , upgraded technology classes, and academic buildings . This is reinforced by Radloff who notes that only “one fifth of a student’s time is spent in the classroom, contributing about one quarter of the total learning variance (Radloff, 1998, p. 1). College Is very time demanding and can be over whelming is students don’t align there priorities right.

In order to see the change of campuses in America we have to go back in time to compare the first American campuses. The word campus, (derived from a Latin word for “field” – “an expanse surrounded…by woods, higher ground, etc., Harper, n.d.) A lot of the first campuses focused on separating the campus from the distractions of the outside world.There were a lot of open pastures on campus to encourage a learning environment in nature. As time went on cars were more prevalent on campuses so in order to accommodate more parking lots were made for cars. This took away from the nature and pastures on campus.In the 1970’s There was a “green day” movement to bring back more nature on campus and build awareness to to environmental change.”Now as climate change is a major scientific and political issue, a renewed commitment to sustainability is evident in campus planning efforts to integrate built and open spaces within “green infrastructure” (Way, Matthews, Rottle & Toland, 2012).”

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A building with an holistic landscape view

Nature is thought to be very soothing for students and is a helping factor for rejuvenating a students mind and body.Nature is observed by students very closes in decision making for campuses. “In fact, Grummon (2009) found that 13.5% of incoming students surveyed selected a university based on sustainability concerns.”You can infuse students learning and the landscaping around then in two ways a holistic landscape and direct and indirect attention and restoration. With a holistic landscape you can incorporate nature in ever aspect of the landscape design. For example you can plant a garden surrounding a dorm with a window in each students dormitory that faces the garden giving them a view of the flowers and bushes. This provides a calm environment for students to reduce stress. You can also do direct and indirect holistic landscapes where students don’t even realize the nature around them. Example: Putting floral picture or paintings on the walls inside the lobbies of the libraries , dorms , computer labs , etc… There is definitely a cognitive belief that holistically landscaped can help improve the learning for students and encourage a healthy mind so that students can make better decisions. It is vital that campuses incorporate this for students to utilize a campus to its full potential.

http://libjournal.uncg.edu/jls/article/view/972/777

MLA: Scholl, Kathleen, & Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi. “Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces.” Journal of Learning Spaces [Online], 4.1 (2015): n. pag. Web. 10 Oct. 2016

Summary on Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment by Sarah Schindler

Sarah Schindler wrote an article in the Yale law journal that gives an in depth look into physical segregation used  by architects to subliminally (or not) segregate richer white communities from the poorer minority groups. In section (1A) Sarah opens up with an intriguing statement that states ” one might think it a simple aesthetic design decision to create a park bench that is divided into three individual seats with armrests separating those seats. Yet the bench may have been created this way to prevent people—often homeless people—from lying down and taking naps.” We might not look at a bench design as a way to keep the homeless away but it is a form of physical discrimination. Strongly suggested in this article is that politics usually have a hand in this construction of segregation. The segregation by physical design is used to cage people in and guide peoples behavior without them really even noticing . An example of this is used in section (1A)”That a highway divides two neighborhoods limits the extent to which the neighborhoods integrate. That a town has a square, easily accessible with a diversity of shops, increases the integration of residents in that town.” If one side of a town can’t access the luxuries as the other side, This will create a natural social difference between the two sides. For example the side of the city that can’t go shopping or have access to nice things might find things that are troublesome as “fun hobbies” This would create a whole new stand point on what was the “norm” and what wasn’t in a society.profile-bench

A slight transition to section (1B) shows that the agenda for keeping minorities out of certain areas also came down to the market in which the houses were sold from. In section (1B) “Fischel’s Homevoter Hypothesis—suggesting that homeowners are more likely than renters to vote and more likely to vote in ways that will protect their property investment—and our country’s long history of intentional discrimination and exclusion.” In this case a majority of minorities rent so they would not consider living in these neighborhoods without even thinking that this is a strategic way to keep people segregated.

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It is very hard to control this in the court of law. Officials know that this social injustice occurs, But they do not see it as a big enough problem to put regulations in force. This seems to be a big issue that law makers and legislators should take more seriously. Turning the other cheek will not make the problem go away. The author feels the same way (1B)(“Exclusion through architecture should be subject to scrutiny that is equal to that afforded to other methods of exclusion by law.”)

Part two talks bout the blatant  segregation of communities to make it hard for lower income people to grow. Moses was an architect that was a prime example of this segregation and oppression . He would build bridges to low for busses to travel under the bridges to get into the higher income communities. This will discourage people of lower income to not want to come to the rich communities and go back to their neighborhoods where they belong according to architectural Norms. The author really catches emotions when she uses pathos in her argument when she describes a women whose bus could not reach her job at the mall so she had to cross several lanes just to get to the other side and were hit and killed. All of this could have been avoided if legislators didn’t turn the cheek and addressed this issue that needs to be brought to the light that has been in the dark for so long.

 

 

sites used for pictures :http://site-furnishings.columbia-cascade.com/columbia/Files/Images/Products/BaseProducts/profile-bench.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/227924431114734745/

MLA :    Schindler, Sarah. “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation  Through Physical       Design of the Built Environment.” Yale Law Journal –. The Yale Journal, Apr.-May 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016

 

academic blogs.. “twitter blabbing”

In this academic blog the author is trying to convey to people that get on social media (especially twitter) that twitter is a beautiful place for philosophers and witters to open up and express there self in social media to impact others. The  downfall in her argument is that twitter has so many people posting at once that you will not be able to read a majority of people who post and share ideas. The reason for this is that twitters news feed updates every second of the day. The result of that is bloggers and writers tweets only get seen for a brief moment then they are gone down a jungle of tweets. This is no benefit to people who actual get  a kick out of reading tweets and taking information from them.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/the-best-academic-blogs/274954/