Unlike the Teton Valley, our college campuses do not have the luxury of millions of acres but must make do with much smaller spaces. Parking at USU takes up more than 12 percent of the campus 450 acres. In response, a more holistic space management approach has been attempted in the last two years, including the addition of space inventory and reporting, space utilization analysis, anticipation and planning for space needs, assignment of permanent space, and scheduling for use of space. The space between our buildings is equally at a premium. It is no accident that memorable campuses possess a clear sense of spatial order and hierarchy.
Proportion communicates levels of importance.
Tom Richman, in the October 1995 issue of Marketing Higher Education, also discusses campus space. He writes that the gateway between acceptance and denial for prospective students is the entrance exam an exercise on which students expend a great effort to ensure they perform well, knowing that it will make a difference in which institution they attend. Richman believes that there is also another kind of entrance exam the examination that prospective applicants make when they visit our campuses. And just like prospective house hunters entering a driveway, these institution hunters drive up to the entrance of the campus and immediately form their first and strongest impression. Richman suggests that universities design entryways from the public street to the campus in such a way that they create a passage from the realm of commerce to the realm of ideas.