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Fall 2023 Climate Survey

A climate survey was conducted in Fall 2023 by myself to the general student population. The survey honed in on how students used AHG, and what ways they may see themself using AHG as a space in the future. This survey helped target efforts for prototypes and helped influence the vision plan.

As part of the Vision Plan, select summarized results are p
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65 design undergraduates filled out the climate survey.
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Of those 65 students,
17 identified as first year
18 identified as second year
15 identified as third year
14 identified as fourth year

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RESEARCH

Fostering Design
Community

Community is what makes a college a college.
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Community refers to the creation of norms, culture, and traditions that encourage students to excel. Despite being one of the smaller majors on campus, the Design department fosters a strong sense of community among its students. However, there is a noticeable gap in building community across different class years. Because first-year students are primarily focused on taking first year classes, they may not have the opportunity to interact with junior or senior students. As a result, first-year students may feel unprepared and receive little guidance from upperclassmen on which classes to take, how to succeed in the department, and what steps they can take to excel further.

wkrm's findings

When wkrm conducted research in Spring 2023, we found several key data points related to fostering design community:
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Students don’t feel proud enough to show off AHG.Most majors have a designated place where they can proudly showcase to their friends, family, or others. For example, at UT Austin, engineering majors can show off the Engineering and Education Building (EER), a remarkable and treasured facility on campus. These students not only consider it their home but also take pride in calling it their own. Surprisingly, the wkrm team has observed that many design students do not utilize this space, while engineering and STEM-based majors make more use of it for studying and completing their work. As a result, the design community may feel a sense of displacement or an identity crisis, as they are unable to claim AHG as their own home, even though it is intended for their use.


There aren’t enough spaces for people to work individually.
The space was initially designed by Space Camp and the renovation team to promote collaboration. However, most people using the space tended to isolate themselves at their own tables, resulting in inefficient use of the space. The team discovered that the pedagogy of the Design program was completely opposite to the intended purpose of the space. Most professors and instructors in the department assigned individual design projects, eliminating the need for collaborative spaces.

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There aren’t a lot of places for people to be anti-social.As mentioned in the previous point, the team discovered that it was difficult to find a space where someone who preferred to work alone could spread out without feeling guilty about occupying an entire group of tables.


Noise travels freely throughout the space.The lack of insulation in the space allows noise to easily travel through the Commons area. As a result, the noise from the Commons can be heard in the adjacent classrooms (1.308 and 1.310), causing distractions for everyone in AHG.
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Based on the research conducted by the wkrm team, it has been found that AHG has certain deficiencies in areas related to community. It has been observed that AHG lacks the necessary resources to meet the specific needs of the design community. This has resulted in an increase in non-majors using the space, including students from engineering and other STEM-based majors.
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This led to a key question related to the community within AHG:

Despite AHG being a place for the design community, why aren’t students, faculty and staff drawn to it more to guide their time in the program?

The Problem Is

In the Fall 2023 Climate Survey, students were surveyed about their perceptions and ideas regarding the sense of community within the Department of Design. The results revealed the following:

Students within the same year (i.e., all sophomores) reported having a strong community among themselves.

Students expressed that they did not really know their upper or underclass design peers.

Most students expressed a desire to get to know their peers in the design program.

The department’s pedagogy is structured in a way that fosters community building within specific segments of the department. For example, the First Year Design Core typically consists of one-section classes that bring together all first-year students. In these classes, students have the opportunity to get to know each other well as they spend approximately 5-6 hours per week together.

As a result, most first-year students do not have the chance to meet upperclassmen until at least the spring of their sophomore year, when they have completed all prerequisite courses and can enroll in upper division elective courses.
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Students were also asked to describe how they have either met upperclassmen or why they believe they have not yet done so. Some of the most common responses included:

I am a transfer student and I took classes with all of the (now) juniors. I had no idea who my fellow seniors were until I had to take a class like capstone. There just isn’t either a physical or digital place to bond.

~Fourth Year design student, transfer student

Design keeps their classes very separated and doesn’t offer many events or opportunities for the upperclassmen to mentor or interact with the underclassmen.

~Third Year design student

I think I don’t know peers outside my cohort because I don’t spend so much time in AHG and ART building. As soon as I finish class I’m out of there.

~Third Year design student

There are very few classes you take freshman and sophomore year where you’ll meet people outside your cohort because it’s structured so year-by-year.

~Third Year design student

These prototypes relate to creating a Design Community change the ways AHG is utilized by the community and department as a whole. These prototypes address the various concerns that students may have with the lack of community within the department, and help leverage AHG as a space to be utilized for fostering said community.

The Student Vision for
Anna Hiss Gym

Designed by Zac DeLane, with assistance from the Spring 2022 wkrm Team