Workshop Summary

Reimagine Wehner Task Force Workshop - Meeting Minutes

Date/Time: May 22, 2018 9 a.m.–1 p.m. (including lunch) Location: Wehner Building, Cocanougher Center, Room 183

Welcome & Introductions (Bill Peel) ​ ​ In attendance: Stephen Cisneros, Libby Cook (Advent Representative), Christina Court, Kenny Dao, Ricky Dillard, Mark Gibson, Don ​ Hellriegel, ’Jon Jasperson, Mike Kinney, Dick Lester, Miranda Motley, John Norton, Molly Painter, Janet Parish, Blake Parrish, Bill Peel, Brandi Plunkett, Megan Ryan, Ed Segura, Jorge Vanegas

Task force members and guests gathered May 22 from 9 a.m.–12 p.m. in the Cocanougher Center to begin the programming process for the building redesign - for the existing Wehner building and the proposed expansion. The group engaged in discussion, hands-on exercises, and group brainstorming to focus on identifying the design and programmatic parameters for the building along with stakeholders and their needs and wants for the space.

Brainstorming Session I: Stakeholder Profiles – Generations and Personas (Molly Painter) ​ Molly Painter, marketing coordinator for Mays Business School, kicked off the workshop by conducting a presentation about the existing generations who make up Mays’ stakeholder audiences. She described world and social events that shaped each generation and how the various generations approach work, social interactions, finances, and technology.

Generations Presentation (PDF)

The Greatest Generation ● 1910–1924; Age: 94–108 ● Grew up during Depression, turned economy around, fought in WWII ● Worked for the same company for 40+ years

The Silent Generation ● 1925–1945; Age: 73–93 ● Aka: Lost generation, Traditionalist, “Children were to be seen, not heard” ● Conversely – Civil Rights ● Respect brick and mortar education ● Likes one-on-one

Baby Boomers ● 1946–1964; Age: 54–72 ● Largest generation ● Seen incredible dramatic social change ● First generation with two income household and credit cards ● Has had to build, lose, and rebuild financially ● Technology came later in life; learning process

Generation X ● 1965–1979; Age: 39–53 ● Crossover – Xennials, 1975–1985; Age: 33–43 ● Independent ● Remember life before technology ● Usually get married later in life ● Skeptical ● Value diversity ● Work-life balance

Generation Y – Millennial ● 1980–1994; Age: 24–38 ● Seen a lot of schoolyard violence ● Grew up in supportive environment ● Value civic duty ● Wellness ● Most accepting of diversity

Generation Z ● 1995–2012; Age: 6–23 ● Never known a world without technology or war ● Over saturated by brands, do not care about brands; they know what they want and how to get it ● Adaptable and like change ● Reliant on technology to solve problems for them

Alpha Generation (not discussed) ● 2013–2025; Age: 1–5 ● Not enough data yet to show how they will work in the workforce or what outside influences will shape them

Personas (PDF of the team’s personas) ​ ​

Painter then led the group in building stakeholder personas – fictional, generalized representations of stakeholders created with informed assumptions. Participants teamed up in pairs and collaborated to fill out structured questionnaires to construct their ​ ​ fictional personas; after completing the profiles and “naming” their personas, participants were instructed to find an image that best represented their personas from a table of pre-printed photographs. Each team then chose one persona to present to the group.

Mays Demographics (webpage) ​ ​

Brainstorming Session II: Stakeholder Alignment (Bill Peel) ​ Wehner Task Force Chairman, Bill Peel, then facilitated a brainstorming session with the group to identify any stakeholders who were not identified during the persona exercise.

The participants identified the following: ● Janitorial staff ● Graduate Students (Prospective & Current) ● Non-graduate (spouses, parents) ● Prospective Faculty ● Employers ● Advisory Boards ● Aggie Moms ● Parents ● People From Other Colleges ● Service Animals ● Visitors ● Clients ● Emergency Personnel: Police/Fire/EMS ● Veterans ● Delivery (Caterers, Couriers, etc.) ● Special Needs/Disabled ● International Students

Special Update: Mays 50th Anniversary Celebration: (Blake Parrish) ​ Mays Director of Marketing and Communications, Blake Parrish, updated the group about Mays’ upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration (Sept. 7–8) with a web address for activity information and a celebration video.

50th Celebration Video (YouTube) ​ ​

50th Anniversary Website - wereaMAYSing.com ​ ​

Inspiration Images (Bill Peel) ​ Peel presented inspirational images – some actual, some renderings – from higher education and corporate learning environments and envisioned 21st century classrooms. Areas that were highlighted and discussed included flexible spaces (where furniture can be moved), flat teaching spaces, high-touch spaces (whiteboards), teaching in the round, multi-use spaces, and huddle spaces.

Inspiration Images (PDF) ​

Big Ideas (Bill Peel) ​ Peel then led the group in a brainstorming exercise to identify individual expansion needs and considerations. Again, participants worked in pairs (with a structured questionnaire), interviewing each other about the goals for the project. Peel then charged the group with categorizing their ideas based on the four characteristics that form the framework of the “problem seeking” programming methodology: Form, Function, Economy, and Time.

The following goals were identified:

Form ● More flat classrooms ● Incorporate different levels of privacy (w/ furniture, partitions, glass, etc.) ● Avoid high school feel in hallways ● Avoid sterile look. Use wall spaces effectively ● More spaces for interaction by design (formal & informal) ● Provide support for faculty with no offices ● More usable communal space (cell phone, laptop, printing, storage, etc.) ● Moveable furniture ● More than one building - use designation of ● Peripheral green spaces business quad (as in the new engineering ● Food trucks, food services and catering quad) areas ● Small meeting rooms that can be used for ● Allow standing spaces for lectures classes ● Glass instead of solid wood doors ● Active learning classrooms ● Hot swap offices for additional faculty

Function ● Create a true and obvious front door ● 24/7 access to common spaces, study/huddle space and classrooms ● Conduct a space utilization study ● Consider repurposing current space ● Create visitor/concierge space ● Better signage ● Promote “collision” across all stakeholders ● Coffee shop/rejuvenation station ● Hospitality spaces ● Indoor/outdoor learning spaces ● Variety of collaboration spaces (presentation practice, marketing interview/research, focus groups) ● Consider converting the gazebo to a coffee shop/cyber cafe ● Huddle spaces for students

● Establish hierarchy/organizing structure ● Use unused space under the stairs ● Book rooms online or via app ● Add office supplies/a retail store ● Add outdoor learning spaces (walking paths, trees, shaded awnings, chairs, etc.) ● Consider the roof as a planned learning space – rooftop garden ● Add copying/printing services ● Look “Best in Class” ● Incorporate active learning spaces ● Incorporate study spaces

Economy ● $50–60 million: Expansion ● Consider phasing – some earlier investment in high impact/low cost repurposing

Time ● Involve faculty early ● Be creative in scheduling ● Identify things that need to be accomplished now, instead of later

After documenting the brainstormed ideas, Peel directed the group to a board of “Big Ideas” generated from the ​ ​ previous Task Force meeting. The group reviewed the ideas and reiterated which previously identified concepts were still relevant to move forward with in the planning process.

Brainstorming Session III: Goals (Bill Peel) ​ Peel directed the group in further exploration by prompting attendees to pair up and think about times when their own learning environments impacted them in positive ways. Then the teams were to consider the Wehner footprint (existing site and planned expansion) and discuss what goals could be established to engender the same positive learning experiences with regard to form, function, economy, and time. Their answers were recorded on a ​ worksheet, and teams then shared their ideas with the group to generate discussion. ​

Goals

● Look at the entire Wehner footprint ● Consider the Mays Business Quad concept (remember to look at the landscape around it, make it more green). Good examples are the Ag Garden’s project and the new Engineering Quad. Include food trucks. ● Highlight our magnet spaces (make all spaces more inviting!) ● Improve the wayfinding & signage ● Incorporate touch screen monitors and advanced technology ● Eliminate dark narrow halls st ● Create more 21 ​ century learning spaces ​ ● Smaller more interactive classrooms ● Functional study rooms ● Create flexible collaboration spaces ● Provide students moveable furniture ● Bring the outside in ● Active learning spaces – let the students form their own learning spaces ● Create spaces for “collisions” ● Allow after hours, 24/7 spaces ● Well supported, technology enabled ● Plan for the Mays Innovation center ● Plan for the Mays Transformation Center and other transformation spaces ● Add more high-touch, tackable/whiteboard spaces ● Create space for student pop-up businesses ● Educate the faculty on innovative learning spaces ​​​​​​​​ ● Incorporate outdoor learning spaces (including the rooftop) ● Include a coffee shop/cyber cafe

Summary & Action Plan (Bill Peel) ​ Participants offered the following comments at the conclusion of the workshop. Peel facilitated a plus/delta review of the session.

Pluses (what went well) ​ ● Great ideas voiced ● Comfortable environment for idea generation ● Diversity of members; encouraging different positions (faculty, students, etc.) to work together which allows range of perspectives ● Volume of creative ideas for future spaces ● Great exposure of issues ● Stakeholder persona exercise was fun ● Great structure and facilitation ● High level of active interaction and contribution ● Highly organized ● Time management/maintained the schedule ● Effective exercises ● Great discussions that led to “snowball” effect on creating ideas ● Great structure for conversation

Deltas (where there is room for improvement) ​ ● Give pre-work so members could come prepared ● Include booklet of handouts prior to meeting ● More insight of the future of education ● Need to quickly narrow down the scope ● Go on tours (members would like tours and more photos) ● Need to include more stakeholders (graduate students, research faculty, Ph.D. students, prospective students, etc.) Tap into Mays Academy to include prospective students ● Walk around the space/building to have a better understanding of what exists ● Learned that faculty need more training on available technology and how to incorporate it in their teaching ● Find the optimum near term vs. long term balance