About the Process

The Champlain College master planning process began in early 2006 and will end in the fall. This process investigates opportunities to improve our campus in ways big and small: though large-scale, long-term actions such as building construction, and through smaller interventions such as how we use space-changes that can happen right away.

The planning process has four phases:

PHASE 1: Identification of Issues

With the help of consultants at Goody Clancy, ORW, and Rickes Associates, the Champlain community will investigate what physical conditions are working well for the College and what could be improved. Campus tours, discussions with neighbors and city officials, open meetings, interviews with faculty, staff, and students, and the guidance of a steering committee will help to clarify campus context and issues.

PHASE 2: Analysis and Alternatives

How should the Champlain campus look and feel in the months and years ahead? The Champlain community-students, staff, faculty, trustees, and neighbors-will gather for an interactive, hands-on workshop called a charrette. Participants will work in small groups to design their ideal Champlain of the future, addressing the issues identified in Phase 1. The Champlain community will have opportunities to provide additional feedback at post-charrette drop-in sessions. The ideas and priorities that emerge from these sessions will be used to develop alternative scenarios for the future.

PHASE 3: Draft Master Plan

Based on the issues identified in Phase 1 and the ideas, priorities, and preferred alternatives that emerged in Phase 2, the consultants will draft a master plan. This will illustrate Champlain's vision for the future and outline the steps that will enable the College to achieve that vision.

PHASE 4: Final Master Plan

The Champlain community will review and revise the draft plan. The final master plan will offer a workable and broadly embraced roadmap for the future of the campus. Once this plan is in place, Champlain College will begin to implement the campus vision.