<p>I read that before (it is vague, like when our chemistry department claims it “wants to close the gap between research discovery and what is learned in the classroom using the new and redesigned spaces” which are supposed to signify blah, blah, blah). I just wonder what the actual plan is to facilitate those things other than just having the space. There isn’t really anything to debate. People should just be more cynical about highered (especially elite highered), regardless about the strong feelings we hold for our home institutions. Everything that glitters is not gold. Sometimes I believe the buildings put up by many of our schools serve the purpose of attraction and distraction. We should just start demanding actual excellence and change for UG’s and not just aesthetic excellence. Like, if I am taking gen. chem lab in a renovated laboratory, I should expect to do more than cookbook experiments from a lab manual (that’s just doing the same crap, with new beautiful benches and hoods) or if there is a new engineering (or any STEM) building, get the teachers to do something more than just lecture (or at least integrate more stimulating material or cases) in intro. STEM courses (if the instructors just do the same thing or if there is no experimentation, you just learn the same crap, the same exact way, in a much nicer auditorium. You still passively take in information and assessments stay at the same level). I think we are just all too easily impressed by the “tricks” that our schools do to attract and keep us. Maybe we just don’t expect that much from the academic aspects, I don’t know. I should never be glad that: “I am learning this course at the exact same level as my friend at X elite institution, but now I am learning it in a nicer building” (that is what some of us unconsciously do). It should be like: “Not only are we learning in a nicer building, but our teachers teach like X and the course is much more challenging than what my friend at Y is experiencing”. I would suggest being cynically proud of schools going through a building boom (as all top ones are) and question what it means other than more prestige from those observing the construction. I mean, the crap costs tons of money and explains why tuition continues to go up, so one should expect more than their comfort levels and ego to increase as a result. </p>