Physical Campuses

VR can complement undergraduate environmental education in meaningful ways—and even offer opportunities and insight that are inaccessible by other means.

Many public universities face a costly backlog of facilities maintenance and renewal projects. The University of Nebraska is trying a new approach to finance infrastructure repairs well into the future.

Most historically Black colleges and universities can’t fix existing facilities, let alone build new ones. In a perennially underfunded sector, Howard University’s $785 million for construction stands out.

With rents higher than tuition and fees at many California colleges, a growing number of students face housing insecurity, forced to live in hotels or cars. Institutions can’t build dorms fast enough.

Florida State closes its health sciences building after a faculty report details an apparent cancer cluster, black debris falling from air vents, dangerous radon levels and more. Professors say earlier action may have saved lives.

Colleges can’t view it as the end goal to responding effectively to the climate crisis, argue Alex Barron, Aaron Strong and Lucy Metz, who offer five other recommendations for action.

The university’s divestment is powerful, but it must do more to model climate leadership, write Ilana Cohen and Tim Wirth.

Experts say crediting students for their climate advocacy is wise. But institutions tend to minimize the role campus activists may have played in helping them decide to divest from fossil fuels.