This institution’s executive team has led collaborative efforts to better embrace students, staff, and community members.

Established in 1965, Tarrant County College District is a comprehensive two-year institution dedicated to providing quality education to the residents of Tarrant County, Texas. Its mission, according to its Web site, is to provide affordable and open access to quality teaching and learning.

The college has four major campuses in the cities of Hurst (Northeast campus), Fort Worth (Northwest and South campuses), and Arlington (Southeast campus), with administrative offices in downtown Fort Worth.

In 2004, Tarrant County College District (TCCD) developed a district-wide facilities master plan, with the help of Freese and Nichols, Inc., to assist the college in establishing a long-range planning framework for present and future growth. The facilities master plan presented an organized approach to assist decisionmakers in the development of aesthetically pleasing campuses that provide a state-of-the-art learning environment. The ultimate goal of the plan, according to company materials, was to help TCCD conserve and enhance its resources as well as improve and sustain the environmental and academic quality of each campus for faculty, staff, students, and visitors.

Master plan
The district-wide master plan’s goals and recommendations were developed through an extensive and thorough study of existing conditions, TCCD staff and faculty interviews, student input, and sessions with the TCCD master plan committee. The planning team noted many recurring themes, statements and observations that confirmed the overall goal consensus.

The project approach consisted of data gathering, analysis, review, and recommendations. The data-gathering phase included multiple interview sessions with faculty, staff, students, and community leaders, using Web-based questionnaires and a campus-by-campus facilities inventory.

Generating data
During TCCD’s analysis phase, the planning team determined opportunities, constraints, strengths, and weaknesses by qualifying and evaluating data. The team studied existing physical conditions, which included circulation, pedestrian travel distances, important view sheds, green space, building functions, and parking. Potential building sites, repair and replacement costs, and functional space-planning characteristics were also considered for all campuses.

All-day interview sessions on all campuses were conducted with faculty, staff, administrators, students, and community members, which gave TCCD a tremendous amount of input and feedback. More specifically, the planning team used a questionnaire and an on-line public forum comment page to receive detailed and specific comments. According to its Web site, the team generated an estimated 1,160 responses.

In the review phase, the planning team held interactive workshops to generate feedback on specific concepts and alternatives. In the final recommendations phase, the plans were refined to develop the final facilities master plan recommendations.

In the final recommendations phase, the facilities master plan outlined multiple implementation projects for each campus. Many of the recommended improvements addressed facility needs common to all four campuses, which included overall campus layout and landscaping improvements, traffic/circulation enhancements, parking, entry definition, academic space expansion, and the development of community/ conference centers.

Smooth sailing
The road ahead looks extremely smooth for Tarrant County College District. On its official day of record at the end of January 2007, the college reported an enrollment record of 33,242 students districtwide. The figure is up .35% from last spring, which totaled 33,127 enrollees.

A new comprehensive campus is slated to open in downtown Fort Worth in 2008. Plans call for the construction of about 400,000 square feet in the first phase, with anticipation that rapid growth will dictate plans for expansions in the first 10-year time frame. The Fort Worth campus will be the college district’s fifth comprehensive campus, modeled in size and programming after the four existing campuses.