Relatively little attention has been given to institutional adjustments in terms of programs, policies, services, or physical spaces. In short, students were adjusted, but rarely were their environments. There is now growing interest within postsecondary education in the ecosystem approach that identifies adjustments institutions can make to facilitate student retention and growth. A campus environment consists of all the stimuli that impinge upon the students' sensory modalities, including physical, chemical, biological, and social stimuli. A transactional relationship exists between college students and their campus environment, i.e., the students shape the environment and are shaped to it.
Every student possesses the capacity for a wide spectrum of possible behaviors.
A given campus environment may facilitate or inhibit any one or more of these behaviors. The campus should be intentionally designed to offer opportunities, incentives, and reinforcements for growth and development. Students will attempt to cope with any educational environment in which they are placed. If the environment is not compatible with the students, the students may react negatively or fail to develop desirable qualities. Because of the wide range of individual differences among students, fitting the campus environment to the students requires the creation of a variety of campus subenvironments.