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Facilities Manager Magazine

Membership Matters
APPA to Be Key Player in Historic Event in Higher Education
by Sam L. Polk Sr., Ed.D.

Sam Polk is director of facilities management at Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee. He is also APPA’s Vice President for Educational Programs and can be reached at spolk@tnstate.edu

In July, APPA will join with the National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the Society for College & University Planning (SCUP) to offer an educational event that will provide educational and networking opportunities that no one in higher education has ever seen before.

Campus of the Future: A Meeting of the Minds will be held July 8-11, 2006 in Honolulu, Hawai’i. The conference has been designed to allow facilities professionals, business officers, university planners, and other campus administrators to build synergy through outstanding programming and collaborative networking. This single event will allow those who “wear many hats” on campus to gain all the professional development needed at one time.

The conference content has been designed to offer attendees ten tracks with 160 compelling sessions that will give insight on what the future holds for higher education. APPA members will find many sessions that cater specifically to their needs and interests.

Attendees will explore trends, challenges, and advancements on the horizon for the campus of the future. Chosen strategic thinkers will present value-rich topics including; students of the future, the campus of the future, tradition prosperity, and preparing for changes. These topics along with keynotes and panel discussions will provide for collaboration and working together to develop strategies that will help institutions successfully plan and navigate the future. APPA members Gary Reynolds, of Colorado College, and David Cain, of Carter & Burgess (formerly of Northern Arizona University), will discuss their report on the soon to be released CFaR study, entitled Impact of Facilities on the Recruitment and Retention of Students.

 In addition to the concurrent sessions, Campus of the Future will feature two outstanding plenary speakers: Thomas Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist with The New York Times and best-selling author of The World is Flat, will share his insights on the impact of globalization on higher education and what it means for our future; and Tim Sanders, Leadership Coach with Yahoo!, best-selling author, and irrepressible advocate for good values in the business world, will offer his perspective on how higher education creates today and tomorrow’s civic society.

The exhibit hall will be unlike anything ever seen in terms of breath and variety. The Campus Expo will feature a plaza, walkways, open spaces, fountains, and even a clock tower to recreate a campus-like experience. Exhibitions will be positioned along campus-like streets and will display the latest products and services to sup- port the campus of the future. APPA, NACUBO, and SCUP all see the value in working together to hold this conference, therefore each association has arranged to represent a different area of a campus on the exhibit floor. Attendees are encouraged to bring their teams and split up the knowledge; guaranteed to return home with more than ever thought possible!

APPA members should not miss out on this unique opportunity. APPA’s visibility within this historic event is even more strategic as fellow members Doug Christensen, Rod Rose, and Terry Ruprecht will share the work of their CFaR project with the entire community.

I would like to especially thank members of APPA who served with me on the Program Action Committee: Jack Colby, Maggie Kinnaman, Gary Reynolds, and Rod Rose, as well as APPA staff members Lander Medlin and Suzanne Healy. It was their guidance and dedication that has brought APPA this far in providing a program unlike any other.

Again, I encourage all members of APPA to register for this once-in-alifetime event. APPA’s continued collaboration with NACUBO and SCUP will only help to advance the facilities professional in their everyday career on campuses and universities throughout the world.

See you in Honolulu!    

APPA to Be Key Player in Historic Event in Higher Education (PDF Format)