Uploaded on 2016-12-22 by jz zhou

Urban college campus as a community park and a tourist attraction In America, many colleges are located within urban area of a metropolitan city with population over a quarter million. These urban colleges typically have campus sizes of 20-200 acres, or about 1/10 to one square kilometres. Due to the urban development, most colleges are surrounded by residential houses. Most colleges have performing arts facilities, sports field and track, tennis, baseball, basketball and volleyball court, some have swimming pools. Most urban college students are commuters and most of them don’t live on campus. Therefore, the urban college have park like campus with very good facilities, but almost no people on weekend. Can urban college campuses be used as a community park and for community sports and performing art events? In order to develop a urban college/community park multi-purpose campus, citizen science design approach can be used. Local resident, local government officials in the park and recreational department, college faculty, administrators and students should be involved. Here are some guidelines for the project 1. Clear vision and mission The vision of the project should be a joint use urban college campus that is busy and lively all the time. During weekdays, students are the primary users; and on weekends and evenings, local residents can enjoy the facilities and space. As the result, the urban campus does not look like a deserted place when schools are not in session. More people visit the campus will increase the college name recognition and bring more donations and grants. The mission of the project is to make the best use of the college campus space 24/7, to increase the students participation of real life experiences through community collaboration, and to improve local residents life quality. 2. Participation of stakeholders Citizen science projects should aim to develop an active and productive participation of citizens’ scientists in all the different phases of the research project, by acknowledging a large variation in their participation. Citizens might possibly contribute to topic selection and development, research design, execution, dissemination of results and funding. Expertise of citizen science shall be used in the best possible way implying flat hierarchies and the possibility of citizen scientists to take over responsibilities if they wish, once encouraged. 3. Financial impact project should not increase the college financial burden, it should be self-sufficient at the minimum. The parking on campus on weekend or evenings may be a revenue source and a traffic control mechanism. Local residents may be parked free for the first hour. 4. Sustainability In order to have limited resources used by the vast majority of people, the project has to be scalable to serve more people in the future. Some outside space should be reserved with a fee based on demand, and sports facilities and music venues should be used by qualified groups who knows how to use the facilities and proper orientation is needed.