The Role of Happiness and Social Sustainability in Improving Campus Planning

A college campus ought to accommodate the needs of students; after all, they are the reason for the institutions in the first place. Nonetheless, there are instances in which planning rejects the needs of many students. A student-run dialogue session called Lenses of Sustainability at my campus brought together university students to share their opinions on social sustainability, especially with regards to how our happiness shapes how our environment and vice versa. This reminded me of the role of participatory methods in improved campus planning. Students shared their opinions of how the social dimensions in their university experience were often neglected, and thus, left them feeling less fulfilled. This could be attributed to general characteristics of university life, which create stress for college students. Often, these are unpreventable aspects of large university life. However, a lot of the time, underlying students happiness was the configuration of campus built environment, especially with regards to affordable housing, public space, and social services. This can affect the wellbeing of students.

Students mentioned coziness as a contributor to their happiness. Thus, how public spaces and buildings are designed can reinforce this. Another was nature and the related recreational opportunities-- how can a campus retain enough green space? If we are to build more compactly, how can we ensure that nature is still accessible to promote social wellbeing? Another significant issue was being a part of a community. This is challenging in a large school, but it is an aspect that can be improved through improving accessibility to student housing, both permanent and temporary (even a student hostel).  Students who must commute for one or two hours each day to and from campus, not only feel separated from campus life, but when they are expected to juggle the various responsibilities of being a student and they lose much of their time commuting each day, it is unavoidable that they will be stressed. Affordable housing seemed to be the most significant strategy for students' quality of life to be improved. It also says a lot for a campus very much focused on environmental but not social sustainability-- these two are deeply intertwined.