Campus leaders face a familiar trio of pressures: declining enrollment, tighter budgets and a rising need for student wellness. Budgets are always on the table, but more and more, the real focus is on enrollment—specifically, how facilities, housing and campus gathering spaces can influence students’ decisions about where to attend and whether to stay.
Behind almost every project is the same question: Will this place shape a student’s feeling that they belong here?
I’ve seen it firsthand, both as a parent touring campuses with my kids and in recent conversations with college students. The things that stick, the real differentiators, aren’t in the faculty bios or curriculum charts.
What they remember is the atmosphere: a lounge filled with natural light, a commons with genuine energy, a dorm that feels clean, safe and well-maintained. These seemingly small details aren’t small at all. They reveal how students choose, not just based on academics, but on how a campus feels.
Because the college years are about community just as much as academics. And the spaces students move through every day quietly shape their sense of belonging.
Parents are part of this equation, too. On tours, we scan for cleanliness, safety, good food and well-run housing. When those cues are strong, parents become advocates.
A decade ago, many universities began upgrading student living from cinderblock rooms to apartment-style housing with daylight, durable finishes and real amenities. Those investments changed the conversation around campus and influenced enrollment decisions almost immediately.
Ask users about campus spaces
So the design focus has shifted to the spaces between dorms and classrooms, what might be called pause points, where students naturally gather. Media centers and other specialized campus buildings are increasingly being reimagined with multipurpose common areas.
When designed with students in mind, even single-use facilities can become unexpected hubs for daily connection and learning—inviting students to linger, collaborate or simply catch their breath between classes.
A thoughtful design process often begins with listening. Recently, student athletes were asked what they wanted most from a new varsity facility. Their priorities were clear: space to gather and study between practices, and a way to express school pride in an authentic, understated way. The final design reflected those requests, offering a place that felt unmistakably theirs, shaped by their own words and needs.
Adaptive reuse also strengthens belonging. Many campuses hold older buildings that are deeply loved but functionally tired.
With aged classroom buildings, updating systems, improving energy performance and reorganizing interiors into smaller, more collaborative spaces can help. Keeping a familiar landmark in service carries the university’s identity forward. Alumni recognize it; new students make it their own. That continuity matters.
There is a pedagogical benefit, too. We’re seeing fewer 500-seat lectures and more small-group learning.
Older structures with tighter structural grids adapt well to that shift; sometimes, the work is literally turning one big room into six learning labs and social enrichment spaces. That scale supports the human interaction that students and faculty say they value most.
Even modest interventions—lighting, furniture, layouts—can quickly change how spaces function, with meaningful impact on belonging and retention. The throughline is empathy for the needs of the user.
Too many planning committees reach for what they loved decades ago. Today’s students live differently. Ask them. Ask the faculty and staff who spend every day in these buildings. Their input is the best design brief you will ever get.
Every square foot matters
Why now? Because the pressure is real. Enrollment is down across the country, and every campus is competing harder for fewer students.
At the same time, mental health and wellness needs are rising, and parents are looking more closely at where their kids will live and how they’ll be supported. The truth is, students can get a good education in a lot of places.
What makes them choose one school over another, and stay once they’re there, is whether it feels like a community. Buildings and spaces set that tone before a class even starts. If a place feels safe, welcoming, and connected, students are more likely to stick around, do well, and talk about it with pride long after they graduate.
The most effective campus projects begin by gathering the voices of students, faculty and staff and shaping spaces around their needs. Every square foot is a chance to help students feel like they belong. And belonging is what keeps them there.
