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Members of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Central Office staff went on the road on August 18-24, 2011, making stops at 20 institutions in six states during the course of seven days. The ACUI Campus Tour: Welcome Week 2011 included visits with college union and student activities staff and students at a variety of institution types with a range of organizational models. Key trends observed about the role of the unions and activities during those first weeks of the year: (1) Host events that will draw students into the union; (2) Introduce students to ways of getting involved in campus life; (3) Serve as a hub of information for students and other members of the campus community; (4) Provide needed services for students; (5) Play a role in the coordinating and hosting of orientation and welcome events; and (6) Recruit and train student employees that will serve as ambassadors for the union. These trends are presented throughout this publication.

In October 2011, a multidisciplinary group of 50 individuals (students, architects, planners, consultants, campus administrators, and higher education association leaders) met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to consider the relationship between physical place and campus community. Because a gathering of this type and on this topic had not previously occurred, it enabled robust conversation around important questions for higher education, such as: (1) What barriers prevent them from achieving community through physical places?; (2) What does community look like and what are its elements?; (3) How do they know when community has been influenced by place?; and (4) How do they measure it? These questions, and more, were introduced through small group discussions, debated in large group reporting sessions, and challenged by provocative guest speakers. Although what was learned from the Summit is highly nuanced, and further described elsewhere in this report, three over-arching messages emerged: (1) When campus community exists in its strongest form, it is associated with learning, civic purpose, and a sense of belonging; (2) Places of exceptional community are those that exhibit high levels of human engagement and are imbued with evidence of human-to-human mutuality, psychological safety and refuge, and a strong sense of individual and group ownership; and (3) Although legitimate barriers to achieving physical community exist, more sophisticated and willful campus leadership can overcome barriers such as discipline-based, institutional, or association boundaries; navigation of campus politics; or inarticulate justification for physical place and community.