The National Wildlife Federation is releasing a report today that documents more than 160 student-led projects in sustainability and offers tips on how to start similar projects on campuses across the country.

Julian Keniry, director of the Campus Ecology program at the federation, said that the examples in the report document what many have observed about the current sustainability movement: There is unprecedented student interest in sustainability issues that has given rise to a diverse set of activities.

Ms. Keniry also said interest in sustainability cuts across some geographic and political demographics. "We have been impressed by the breadth of involvement," she said. "They are schools small and large, state, public, and private."

And although sustainability programs...

Any facilities administrator or campus architect who has had to add ramps, elevators, heating-and-cooling systems, and other modern features to grand old college buildings will appreciate this article. The Guardian reports on controversies at Britain's venerable universities, as officials try to balance modern additions with historical sensitivity.

At the University of Cambridge's Old Schools, people noticed a hole in the floor of the Regent House Combination Room and wondered if maintenance people were fixing the pipes or somesuch. When they found out the university was putting in an elevator, they were appalled.

"It is historically the most important room in the universities of the English-speaking world. It is the cradle of Cambridge's democracy, our...

The United Negro College Fund has received a $1.8-million grant from the Kresge Foundation that will help establish training programs to promote green building at minority-serving institutions. The program was set up with the help of Second Nature, a leading sustainability organization in higher education.

The grant will establish institutes and workshops to train college staff members in green-building practices. The fund plans three workshops, in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Antonio, starting this February. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund will also participate.

The $2-billion Kresge Foundation is known for giving money to construction programs. In a news conference this morning, William F.L. Moses, director of programs, said that because of Kresge's...

Middlebury College recently found that a 40-year-old chairlift at its ski facility, the Snow Bowl, was in need of repair and would not meet state regulations. Instead of spending $500,000 for repairs to the double-chair lift, a university release says, the college is spending $1.7-million to replace the old lift with a triple-chair version.

As the video below explains, some of the concrete foundations of the lift towers were failing. Workers could have replaced those concrete foundations, but that would have been considered a major modification that would trigger requirements to bring the rest of the lift up to code. Getting the concrete for the piers up the mountain, as you can see in the video, is no small project. The workmen have to use a helicopter to fly the soupy...

Texas A&M University at College Station says says its McFerrin Athletic Center—a pair of tentlike indoor practice facilities for football and track—is ready for action now that questions about its structural integrity and safety have been answered.

McFerrin is similar to a practice facility used by the Dallas Cowboys that collapsed earlier this year, injuring a dozen people (one of whom was paralyzed). Soon after that collapse, the university hired an engineering firm to examine its facility. The Associated Press acquired documents prepared by the engineering firm, which said that the McFerrin Athletic Center had not been built to withstand high winds, as required by local building codes. A vice president at the firm, Hanyes...

Work on the University of Toledo's Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation is well underway, the groundbreaking having taken place in September. Programs on the campus, a former overflow campus for the university, will focus on developing and marketing alternative-energy technologies, like wind, biofuel, and solar. Some of those technologies will help to power the campus, which is shooting for a carbon-neutral footprint.

A 100-foot-tall, 80-kilowatt wind turbine has already been erected on the site. More than 1.2 megawatts' worth of solar panels, some of them developed by a company that got its start at...

Other colleges would love to have this problem: Halifax Community College recently "found" 50 unused acres on its property, according to the Daily Herald, in nearby Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

Smith Sinnett Architecture discovered the land after the college hired the firm to guide a planning process. "We think this is significant for the future of the college," said one of the architects, Richard Andrews. "It doubles the size of the campus in terms of development.” If the college had to buy the land, it might have paid $30,000 an acre, the article says.

The architects suggested that Halifax could use the land for purposes as varied as a technology center and a nature trail. The college is planning a $12.8-million, 63,000-square-foot...

Consider it a sign of the times: The decline of the gas guzzler, the fall of the auto industry ... and the growth of the university?

The University of Delaware has signed a deal to purchase 272 acres in Newark, just south of the main campus, from Chrysler for $24-million. On the site is a factory where Chrysler made SUV's until December, when it was closed. The deal, which was submitted to a federal bankruptcy court on Friday afternoon, came about after 19 months of negotiations.

If approved by the court, the sale would significantly add to the footprint of the 968-acre campus. A news release says Delaware will probably use the site for a research-and-technology campus to encourage partnerships with the military, local health-sciences organizations, and other...

Leon Krier is an architectural traditionalist, no doubt. At the beginning of his recent book, The Architecture of Community (Island Press), he essentially asks readers to make a choice: Which would you rather see torn down -- all of the "historic" structures, or all of the "modern" ones?

For Mr. Krier, the preference for traditional structures is as much about aesthetics as it is about pragmatism, as you can see from his illustration at left. He contends -- and you can argue with him on this point -- that traditional buildings were better built and more suited to the energy challeneges of the future than would modern structures. Mr. Krier is a proponent of peak oil, the theory that oil supplies will reach a production peak and then begin a steep decline -- with...

On the way to the train in Baltimore, I picked up the latest issue of Urbanite, a local magazine that focuses on city living and sustainability. (Up-front disclosure: I'm a contributing writer there.) This month's issue had a couple of articles that are relevant to readers of Buildings & Grounds.

The first is about community-centered design, the now-familar practice of getting designers -- in particular, student designers -- to go to needy communities and apply their talents. (See an essay about the topic from the recent Chronicle architecture issue.) The article in the Urbanite, "Building for the Better," focuses in part...