Campus Spaces 2019

Climate change is, at this point, both a scientific certainty and a guessing game. Will advances in technology, along with a whole lot of hard work by people everywhere, somehow bring it under control? Or will the weather become far crazier than we can even imagine it, and the global political situation far more dire because the changing climate has disrupted agriculture, urban life, and transportation?

Colleges are having to make similar guesses now about what kinds of buildings they’ll need in 25 or 50 years. In this special issue we examine the myriad climate-related worries facing facilities managers — floods, fires, utility failures, and much more. Meanwhile, colleges’ attempts to cut their carbon emissions are slow to succeed, even when the institutions are trying hard.

Normally this is where we welcome you to the Campus Spaces issue and say we hope you enjoy it. But in this case, it’s more accurate to say we hope Campus Spaces articles, here and in our monthly newsletter, make you think. And let us know what else is worrying you, because it’s probably worrying your colleagues as well — or it should be.

—Lawrence Biemiller