In response to the piece earlier this week about consciously using campuses as resources, alert reader Liz Norell wrote,
“I loved your piece in IHE this week about campus spaces as often undertapped resources to build public support. It aligns with something I’ve been banging on about for years—namely, that we really ought to be holding our academic meetings (disciplinary associations, professional associations, etc.) on college campuses. They’re accessible, they’ve got IT services, there’s plenty of parking, and wouldn’t it be great if our higher ed dollars were supporting our institutions and not megacorporate hospitality entities?!
“I attended a hybrid conference at DePaul in May a couple of years back, and they did on that campus what no hotel conference has ever been able to do—seamlessly integrate online and in-person attendees. It blew my mind. Campuses have figured this out because they have to.”
Yes! Academic conferences tend to attract academics, for whom campuses are our natural habitat. Campuses have classrooms and auditoriums, they have dedicated IT staff, and they’re built for presentations and conversations. Many of them have beautiful physical settings—much prettier than a highway hotel, anyway—and with the rise of online courses, more of them have adequate parking than was true, say, 10 years ago.
There’s also something to be said for the cross-fertilization that can happen when academics visit other campuses and see what they have. I first saw an anatomage table when I visited a campus in another state; as soon as I got back to my home campus, I started lobbying for purchasing a few. Prior to that, I didn’t know such things existed. (For the unfamiliar, they’re displays that present virtual cadavers that allow professors and students to see and manipulate bodily innards without actually dealing with cadavers and all that they entail. The table takes memory cards with various bodies, so even a small program can have access to virtual cadavers of varying ages, genders and medical conditions. They’re seriously cool.) Yes, hotel conferences often have vendors, but seeing how things are actually used in the field is more helpful and trustworthy than marketing copy.
Admittedly, logistics can be an issue for larger conferences and/or smaller campuses. I don’t think the MLA conference would fit into a small liberal arts college, for instance. And campus capacity varies according to the time of year. For some reason, the major academic conferences in my universe tend to cluster around April, which is high season for most campuses. (APSA was even worse, usually happening around Labor Day.) The moments of relatively low campus activity are mostly around either Christmas or the summer, neither of which is prime conference season. And convention centers typically have hotels where attendees can stay, so people don’t have to drive from where they’re staying to the conference itself. Campuses may or may not have dorms, but even if they do, most dorms don’t supply the amenities of hotel rooms. I don’t want to have to pack my own sheets for a conference.
For smaller conferences, though—regional ones, say—these objections are probably manageable. Colleges could contract with local hotels for group rates, and if the conference is at the right time, space shouldn’t be an issue.
Convention center prices, always high, have become ridiculous, and travel is often one of the first things cut when budgets are tight. If campuses (possibly in cahoots with local Hampton Inns or similar) can offer markedly better deals, then I could see a whole series of wins. Campuses would have a new and welcome revenue stream. Colleges that send people to conferences would be able to spend less without sacrificing as much. And academics could continue to participate in larger discussions beyond their own campuses or disciplines.
Yes, yes, yes.
Wise and worldly readers, is there something I’m overlooking? Let me know at deandad (at) gmail (dot) com , or on Bluesky at deandad.bsky.social . Thanks!