About
Stanford Classrooms Reimagined connects Our Most Important Work and our core values – equity and inclusion, community and belonging, mental health and well-being, supporting academics, and integrative learning – to the physical spaces in which we teach and learn – and most importantly – to the people in them. Learning space design balances pedagogically-driven and equity-minded design principles with responsible budget and space planning.
Approved by the Provost and Executive Cabinet in 2021, Stanford Classrooms Reimagined enables a new University Classroom refresh plan to be launched beginning FY22. Over the next 10 years, Stanford Classrooms Reimagined will enhance the user experience by establishing campus classroom design and AV standards, implementing new support protocols, establishing utilization data to optimize space usage, expanding available staffing and skill sets to support classroom instruction and the academic experience, establish a Provost’s Learning Spaces Advisory Board, and launch Phase II addressing informal learning spaces.
Leadership Team
Helen Y. Chu,
Assistant Vice Provost, Learning Spaces & Support
Sean Kennedy,
Director, Audio Visual Design & Engineering
Bob Smith,
Director, Learning Spaces Design & Innovation
Richard Webber,
Associate Vice Provost & CTO, Learning Technologies & Spaces
Report Team
We are grateful for the tremendous effort of the original SCR Report team without whose vision, analysis, campus leadership and dedication this report would not have been possible.
- Richard Webber, Associate Vice Provost & CTO, Learning Technologies & Spaces
- Helen Y. Chu, Assistant Vice Provost, Learning Spaces & Support, Learning Technologies & Spaces
- Beth McCullough, Director, User Support Services, Learning Technologies & Spaces
- Bob Smith, Director, Learning Spaces Design & Innovation, Learning Technologies & Spaces
- Carissa Little, Associate Dean of Engineering for Global and Online Education
- Tom Hier, Partner, Biddison Hier, Ltd.
About Biddison Hier
Biddison Hier provides resource planning and management services nationwide to public and private institutions of higher education. The firm has been engaged in work with Stanford for over 15 years. Find out more.
Key Project Partners
Special thanks to all our campus partners:
- Schools & Departments
- Land, Buildings, & Real Estate
- Libraries
- Residential & Dining Enterprises
- VPGE
- VPSA
- VPUE
Goals for Reimagining Learning Spaces
We approach this shared work through a holistic campus lens and a people-centered experience and aim to accomplish the following goals:
- Create new, updated guiding principles for campus learning spaces.
- Provide classrooms and informal learning spaces that support the distinctive Stanford curriculum and academic mission.
- Create patterns for new and updated spaces that support the diversity of learners and foster equity and inclusion during formal and informal learning experiences.
- Recommend how to most effectively utilize existing spaces and satisfy unmet needs, including proposals for where new space is most needed.
- Guided by a 10-year roadmap and capital plan, update, retrofit and/or create new learning spaces to ensure that the inventory supports current and evolving pedagogies.
- Create a learning space governance group with broad campus representation to guide learning space design and investment.
- Develop performance metrics to assess learning space use and guide future decision-making around creation and management of spaces.
Focus on Equity, Inclusion and Diversity in Learning Spaces
Stanford University has long sought to accelerate our purposeful impact in the world, transform the human experience, and develop solutions for societal challenges. (Stanford University, 2019).
To advance our shared mission, we must also work to achieve equitable access and inclusion, ensuring that all members of the Stanford community feel that they are safe, that they belong, that they are able to engage in the classroom and on campus.
Strategic Plan Benefits
Benefit 1. Overall Enhancement of the Student Learning Experience and Ability to Accommodate Pedagogical Advancements and Innovations
Benefit 2. Greater Ability to Accommodate Diversity, and Be More Equitable and Inclusive in the Learning Environment
Benefit 3. Better Use and Management of Learning Space Resources
Benefit 4. Potential to Use Existing Learning Resources to Accommodate Enrollment Growth