College Employees Value Campus Environment, ‘Chronicle’ Survey Finds

Washington & Lee U.

When a Chronicle survey asked college employees what they value about their jobs, they put the physical environment in which they work at the top of the list. They said they were concerned not only that their spaces met their needs but also that their campuses had a pleasing appearance.

In an article in this week’s issue, Tom G. Contos of Washington and Lee University says that “people are attracted to spaces that capture the sense of being on the campus, being part of the community.” Mr. Contros, university architect at Washington and Lee, adds that faculty members are chiefly interested in being near students and classrooms. While they have a sense of ownership about their offices, they aren’t as concerned as corporate employees about having “the corner office, or more space, or more luxury,” he says.

Like other universities, Washington and Lee has considered moving some staff members who don’t deal with students regularly to off-campus locations. The point would be to avoid crowding the campus core, but Mr. Contos isn’t a fan of the idea. If employees don’t work on the campus, he says, “they may just as well be working for the Bank of America.”

At the heart of Washington and Lee’s campus is a row of buildings completed before the Civil War. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller)