Tyler Junior College has implemented a new opportunity for students, faculty and staff to voice their concerns and ideas, called the TJC Master Plan. This plan includes surveys for students, faculty/staff and community members to make comments, express concerns and state what they enjoy or want to improve about campus.
The new Strategic Plan 2020-2026, which is a seven-year plan used to put into action the community’s vision for TJC’s future and what ways to build on its historic past, was used as inspiration for this Master Plan.
According to Vice President of Operations, Kim Lessner, “TJC leadership identified the desire and need to conduct a comprehensive master plan during the development of the college’s Strategic Plan 2020-2026.”
This plan will involve addressing the needs and concerns of the campus as well as the campus’ community.
“The purpose of this project is to provide TJC with a multi-year comprehensive Master Plan to address development needs and existing development ideas for TJC’s main campus and additional sites,” Lessner said. “Input from leadership, students, faculty, staff and community stakeholders will help to identify the long-term vision and goals for these locations. The plan will assess facility needs, address enrollment growth, reinforce the TJC identity on campus, enhance student experiences, and address vehicular and pedestrian circulation and potential land acquisition/development, among other things.”
There are a total of 145 acres of land on TJC’s main campus. Currently, there are 42 buildings on TJC’s main campus, 9 of which are residence halls. TJC owns all the buildings on both the Main Campus and TJC West, according to the Director of Facilities and Construction, Mark Gartman. A mapping exercise is available online where anyone can comment about the campus in a visual demonstration.
With many students and faculty members on campus with different opinions and ideas, TJC has prepared a way to respond to these suggestions.
Dean of Students Dr. Tam Nannen said, “Through interviews with all stakeholders of the college (students, faculty, staff, community, etc.), Freese and Nichols, Inc., which is a professional planning, consulting, and engineering firm, will provide their expert opinions on our future facilities and campus improvements. Student opinions are key to the success of this project.”
Students can complete the TJC Master Plan survey and mapping exercise at tjc.edu. All survey deadlines will be Sept. 30.
Effort is being put toward this project as it shows this plan will take place in the very near future.
”The development of TJC’s Comprehensive Master Plan will take place in four phases that will guide the process,” Lessner said. “These phases include: information collection, analysis, review and refinement/final recommendations. The surveys are part of phase 1.”
A course of action has been put in place in order to take information from the surveys and put them into movement.
“Freese and Nichols will take the data gathered in the surveys, analyze it, and make recommendations from their analysis,” Nannen said.
