COVID-19 and the work-from-home era will have lasting effects on innumerable aspects of our daily lives. Amenta Emma principal Michael Tyre wrote a piece for Inside Higher Ed about how colleges and universities can not only adapt but advance their institutions by reimagining certain spaces on campus.
Rear-facing admin, for instance marketing and finance people, may prefer to continue working remotely. If their current office occupies prime real estate on campus, converting that space into a career center or institute for racial justice makes a statement and differentiates a school in today’s highly competitive higher-education environment.
“This type of expansion is especially important for colleges and universities because, unlike some private companies, institutions of higher education are typically very tied in with their location,” Michael writes. “Harvard is simply not going to open a campus in Wyoming, while The Hartford might. What’s more, an insurance company can simply inform its employees their positions are being moved to another state and many of them will likely go along with it. A college, however, has to recruit students and faculty, and part of that is usually the campus location.”
