Frederick Community College Facilities Master Plan Chapter 4 Needs Assessment 4-1 May 12, 2023 CHAPTER 4 NEEDS ASSESSMENT NEEDS CONTEXT The purpose of this section is to provide context to the meaning of needs as expressed in this facilities master planning document. Needs is more than about space. Needs for development of Frederick Community College’s (FCC) campus facilities and infrastructure are influenced by four principal factors. These factors are: 1) FCC Mission, 2) FCC Strategic Plan1, 3) P.P.A.S., pronounced “pass” (Programs, People, Activities and Stuff) TM who or what must be accommodated, and 4) the need for improvement of operations and services. These four principal factors apply to institutional-wide needs, campus-wide needs, building needs, or individual space needs. Recognizing its community, state, regional, national, international and political contexts, Frederick Community College’s orderly development of campus facilities and infrastructure is in response to these factors. FCC is committed to developing its campus facilities in ways that best accommodates the needs of students, faculty and staff, while pursuing plans that benefit all stakeholders in the success of the campus and the larger community. The College will, on an ongoing basis, consider the merits of removing some obsolete facilities from inventory, renovating and/or renewing other existing facilities, as well as providing new facilities. Projected needs are the results of future demand on facilities and infrastructure. The need for academic facilities should be viewed in the context of how the process of learning may evolve over time. Due to ever changing technology for both teaching and learning, much of higher education must rethink its 1 Frederick Community College, FCC Forward Strategic Plan 20202025 https://www.frederick.edu/aboutfcc/downloads/opair/strategicplan.aspx learning environments. Although the lecture/lab instructional delivery mode will continue to be used, colleges and universities will increasingly supplement that delivery modality with specialized learning environments that allow for both scheduled and unscheduled instruction and learning in discipline-specific simulated environments. Growth of some existing programs and the establishment of new ones suggest concomitant growth in enrollment and a need for specific, specialized facilities. The demand for college completion and workforce preparation will drive program offerings in the coming years. Many of these programs require specialized classrooms, labs and other facilities that can be flexibly adjusted for a variety of teaching/learning settings. This demand is considered in subsequent sections to identify space needs and suggests future physical development. Demand for critical skills in top growth occupations, flexibility in contract and workforce training with their unique learning environments, veterans, and aging of the general population will be primary drivers for future program offerings and environments. Continuing Education & Workforce Development (CEWD) at Frederick Community College offers affordable and convenient workforce training and lifelong learning opportunities for students of all ages. These “market-driven” courses must be extremely flexible as course changes are continuous. This flexibility is essential in order to meet the everchanging needs of its unique market. As the general population ages, it is expected that a maturing workforce will create greater demand
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