Champlain College master plan under way

Champlain College has hosted a series of open houses to showcase its master plan to the community. The master plan, completed in March of 2007, provides the college with a vision to the future, including multiple renovations and expansions of the college's downtown campus.

Models and large-scale drawings of proposed buildings, including the Whiting/McDonald Residential Quad, were on hand during the open houses. The new quad would include the addition of four new student residential halls with 320 beds altogether.

The buildings house a combination of singles, doubles and suites. They have connecting doors to "ebb and flow with trends," said Margaret Schiff, senior associate for CBT Architects. "It could be one large suite or many smaller suites."

Once the complex is up and running, the college is only one building away from reaching its goal.

"From a residential point of view, we're about there, in terms of residence halls," said David Finney, president of the college.

Where are they now?

This project will take several years. The college is in the middle of permitting for the residential halls, Schiff said.

"It's going to be a two-year building process," she said. "Right now we're getting the facts straight and getting it out to the public."

The design process started about a year and a half ago and plans for the residential halls are expected to receive approval in about four-six months, assuming the city sees the expansion as a good thing, Schiff said.

But despite a shaky economy, Finney said plans could end up taking a year longer than anticipated, but there's no telling that yet. Right now, he said the college is in good shape and "good to go."

"It's a lot to do and we want to be very measured and financially strong as we do each project," Finney said. "We're not in a rush but do want to make steady progress."

The residence halls and the renovation on Perry Hall will cost close to $15 million.

"And that $15 million is a big deal because it keeps people working who otherwise wouldn't be," Finney said.

The cost to expand and renovate numerous parts of campus won't change what students pay for tuition, he said. The resident halls were planned financially so that what students pay for room and board is what finances the college uses to build them, he said.

"We do what we can to keep tuition at inflation in an environment like this," Finney said.

Structural expansion; population maintenance

Champlain College has only increased its student population by about 150 students over the last couple years. President Finney said the college is and should remain between 1,950 and 2,000 students.

"When we developed the master plan, we first asked 'What size are we?'" he said. "We can't plan for facilities if we don't know what size we're going to be. And we promised our neighbors that we wouldn't go over 2,000 students."

About 800 students are housed on the Hill, near South Willard and Main Streets.

And all but 270 students live in Burlington.

"What we need are more residence halls to compete for students," Finney said. "Many of our competition can house students for all four years."

By bringing students back on campus, Champlain is freeing up a lot of housing in the Burlington area, which is currently very tight.
"They feel they're giving housing back to Burlington," said Bob Pahl, representative from CBT Architects. "They're putting those houses and apartments back into the grid, so to speak. They really see it as a good thing, giving something back."

Finney said the college works very hard at being a good neighbor to the larger Burlington community as well as its neighbors on the Hill. About 130 neighbors came to the first open house and the feedback has mostly been very good, Finney said.

"When we started the process we said we needed 1,000-1,200 beds, but our neighbors said that was too much for the Hill and we agreed," he said. "So we decided to put 600 or so off the Hill."

Green space

The college also hopes to give back to the environment by getting LEED certification for all new buildings and renovations. LEED certification relies on a point system and most of the college's points are in green space, Pahl said.

"We're creating a lot more green space," he said. "We're creating a natural bioswale that helps mitigate water on site. And the plants that are in there are really able to thrive. It just shows off that the site is green."

Part of the new residential quad also includes a large grass space, which used to be a parking lot. The design calls for an amphitheater around the northeastern part of the space, providing seating for student activities, events and performances.

The master plan also includes a central promenade from Main Street to Perry Hall which goes right through campus. It provides access to classrooms, dining halls, and administration offices. This new walkway, in addition to the green space, will hopefully draw students off the streets and create an internal campus environment.

There is no shortage of 'green' within the buildings either. Each floor of the new residential halls will have an LCD monitor that tells students how much energy used at any given moment, Pahl said.

"It's really mostly education; there will be a lot of signage in the building teaching students how much energy they are using," he said. "If you take a four minute shower, this is how much energy you use."

There will also be low flow toilets and shower, and heavy insulation. Each building will also feature a heat recovery system that blows heat past a grid and reuses it instead of blowing it outside, Pahl said.

Champlain's academic future

What is also setting Champlain apart is its focus on the career minded student. In 2006, the college introduced the BYOB (Bring Your Own Business) program for students to develop their own businesses or grow one they've already started while achieving a degree.

"We recruit students from all over America and we're pleased with the process," Finney said. "If we figure out a way to expand we will. It has the potential to be an economic engine for Vermont."
In a 2005 interview with Vermont Business Magazine, Finney said that after having talked with the business community in Vermont, he recognized a recurring theme: workforce development was at the point of a crisis.

But currently, 2/3 of students from Champlain take jobs in Vermont upon graduation and 97 percent of students find a job right away either in Vermont or elsewhere, Finney said.

"Our focus is really on career focused students looking to get a job after graduation, and ideally a job in Vermont."

Yet another sign of growth is The Woodbury Institute at Champlain College which began this fall. The two colleges announced the merger last summer and the institute's classes were moved to Burlington. Undergraduates can't continue at Woodbury but Champlain is keeping two of its graduate programs.
"It's all mostly done online and we're very happy to keep those programs," Finney said.

One program that is slowly going away is the college's associate's degree program. In the 1990s, Champlain offered a combination of two and four year degrees but now almost solely offers four year degrees.

"There isn't even an associate's degree on the application for students coming out of high school," Finney said.

Growth for Champlain isn't restricted to the borders of Vermont, or the United States for that matter. The college's study abroad programs include campuses in Montreal, Quebec, and a newly opened campus in Dublin, Ireland.

"We'd like students to spend a semester abroad," Finney said. "Those campuses are still very new to us and we've spent this year working out the kinks so the transition can be seamless. We'll see down the road if there are other places in the world for us."