A drone shot of the student center and Sangren Hall.

Campus Master Plan 2025 and beyond

Help us plan for the future. This is Western Michigan University's first campus master plan in 20 years.

Your voice matters!

We're committed to creating a campus that meets the needs and aspirations of our students, faculty, and staff. That's why we're inviting you to take part in our survey for the WMU Campus Master Plan 2025 and beyond project! Whether you're a student or a faculty/staff member, your input is invaluable in shaping the future of our campus.

Take the student survey Take the faculty/staff survey

Current Phase

Discovery Workshop

View the summary presentation from the Discovery Workshops that took place on February 27-29, 2024.

Summary presentation

About

What is a "Campus Plan" and why is Western Michigan University commencing one?

A campus plan is a roadmap that guides future change to the physical campus environment. One can think of a plan in a series of layers: land and building use, site and landscape, infrastructure, transportation/parking. At a strategic level, the campus plan provides direction for the institution to align with its strategic and mission-driven goals (e.g. improving academic success, expanding research, addressing holistic health). Finally, the campus plan identifies specific projects for implementation, and it includes prioritization and phasing so that the college is equipped to act in the near-term while also planning for long range and aspirational goals.

Why master plan?

  • Alignment with strategic priorities of Western Michigan University
  • Think big and explore ideas
  • Improve efficiencies and ensure that proper infrastructure is in place
  • Enhance the sense of place and weave connections back to the community
  • Identify needs, develop cost effective solutions and prioritize investment

  • Alignment with strategic priorities of Western Michigan University

  • Think big and explore ideas

  • Improve efficiencies and ensure that proper infrastructure is in place

  • Enhance the sense of place and weave connections back to the community

  • Identify needs, develop cost-effective solutions and prioritize investment

How can the campus plan support WMU?

  • Increase retention through student experience and placemaking
  • Engage and plan with DEI groups and initiatives
  • Reduce carbon emissions through integrated sustainability planning
  • Enable research growth through innovative lab and facility planning
  • Prioritize well-being and safety for faculty, staff and students in process and recommendations

Schedule

Initiate: Starting in December 2023, the project is initiated. This process will take four weeks.

Discovery: Starting in January 2024, the project moves into the discovery phase. This process will take six weeks.

Big Ideas: Starting in March 2024, the project moves into the big ideas phase. This process will take 10 weeks.

Develop: Starting in June 2024, the project moves into the develop phase. This process will take 12 weeks.

Refine: Starting in September 2024, the project moves into the refine phase. This process will take 10 weeks.

Campus Engagement: There will be opportunities for campus engagement during each phase of the project. The discovery workshops will take from February 27-29, 2024. The big ideas workshop will take place at a date to be determined in April 2024. The develop workshops will take place at a date to be determined in June or July and September 2024. The refine workshop will take place at a date to be determined in November 2024.

*There will be bi-weekly touchpoints with the members on the project team throughout the duration of the project.

Grid from left to right shows each month from November 2023 to December 2024. On the grid, there are text bubbles with each phase of the project (initiate, discovery, big ideas, develop and refine), campus engagement, and bi-weekly touchpoints. There are also dots representing each campus engagement opportunity/workshop. These all reflect the same timeline outlined in the schedule text above.

Decision-making Structure

  • Steering Committee: This committee is the direction-setting voice in the planning process. Their recommendations guide the plan forward. For WMU, the Steering Committee will be comprised of the same positions already serving on the Space Advisory Committee, which convenes for ongoing action for the Space Utilization and Facility Audit work the university is commencing.
  • Advisory Committee: This committee provides feedback and guiding insight into the plan. They represent a wide spectrum of University organizations and offer a diverse range of input into the plan.
  • User Groups: User groups play a meaningful role in the creation of a campus plan. They provide insight into the current state of programs and facilities while also providing input on future goals and aspirations and discussing challenges. WMU is creating 11 user groups to engage with during the planning process. Information provided by user groups is summarized and used to inform various parts of the master plan update including strategic goals, anticipated future program growth or decline, future space needs, identifying desired adjacencies and potential partnerships.
  • Campus open houses and online surveys: Broad-based, accessible events catering to on-campus students, faculty and staff.

Project Team

Perkins & Will — Nelson/Nygaard – Affiliated Engineers — Eriksson Engineering

   

   

Campus Engagement

Open Houses

Two open houses will take place on Thursday, Apr. 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the student center's second floor lounge near the Gathering Stairs.

Survey

Take part in our survey! Whether you're a student or a faculty/staff member, your input is invaluable in shaping the future of our campus.

Student survey

Faculty/staff survey