Modernizing the campus to deliver timeless value

Key takeaways

• Digital transformation is key to meeting next gen student expectations
• Look for ways to infuse technology into campus activities

Kevin Quinn, President, Aquinas College

We're in a beautiful wooded campus, about 120 acres essentially right on the edge of Grand Rapids. We want to make sure that we preserve what is unique about our campus at the urban forest, as we call it. But we want to make sure that is infused with the kind of technology that we need to have.

So, here's an example of that. For a long time, we've had grammar school students come on campus to identify the various trees. They come here in the fall. They walk around. It's a wonderful thing for us. It gets young people on our campus and thinking about us.

They've been using old school maps. So recently, one of our faculty members put together a tree map that's online and digital. Well, that means that we want to make sure that everywhere you go, that they're able to connect with the GPS in some way. And wireless is the best way to do that.

Digital transformation is key to meeting next gen student expectations

We have to make sure that we separate out what we have done from what is timeless. Just because I went to college a certain way, doesn't mean that the crop of students we have now, or the kids that are born today and will be in college in 18 years, it doesn't mean that they will want to do things the exact same way.

So, we have to pay attention to that, making sure that we deliver those timeless values.