A Sense of Purpose, Place, and Community at Sacred Heart University

Abstract

Institutions of higher education are created with purpose and place in mind: the complexities of collegiate environments influence student learning, success, behavior, and attitudes, and in turn students shape the environments which they inhabit (Renn & Patton, 2011). Certain aspects of colleges are more functional, welcoming, and inclusive than others, and in turn facilitate learning and nurture student development to a greater degree. Strange and Banning (2015) address the nature and assessment of academic environments, examining the process of person-environment interaction through the physical, human aggregate, organizational, and socially constructed forces contained therein. This project describes how this integrated framework of campus environments relates to Sacred Heart University (SHU).