Alma’s vision for academic transformation

JAMIE DIEDRICH
PHOTOGRAPHER

ADITYA HIREMATH
STAFF WRITER

3/16/2026

As Alma College looks toward its future, Alma College President Joe Odenwald has unveiled an ambitious academic master plan aimed at modernizing the institution’s aging academic spaces. With the last campus-wide master plan completed in 2011, the college is now redirecting its focus toward the very core of its mission: academic learning. 

While important investments have been made in recent years, attention has increasingly turned to academic buildings that have gone without major updates for decades. 

“Our academic spaces are the areas that have not had a lot of attention. It makes more sense to focus on the academic areas. So that’s what we’re going to do,” said Odenwald  

The residential and athletic components of campus have already received significant investment. Now, the priority shifts to the academic piece. 

“We’re going to focus on probably three main buildings. Those would be Clack, Dow and Swanson—but nevertheless, they need to be looked at,” said Odenwald.

Once a firm is selected, it will conduct small and large group interviews with faculty, staff and students to understand how spaces are currently being used and what an ideal academic environment could look like. 

Three core themes are driving the redesign. At the top of the list is collaborative learning, with the Learning Commons referred to as a model for what academic spaces should look like. 

“Walk through Swanson and tell me where there’s spaces for collaborative learning. There’s not much,” said Odenwald. 

The second theme is technological integration, ensuring facilities can support modern academic work. The third is accessibility, with concerns raised about seating and navigation in older buildings like Dow. 

“I go to a faculty meeting over in Dow once a month and the desks are not easy to navigate. That’s a problem,” said Odenwald. 

While the plan does not currently introduce specific new academic programs, academic innovation serves as a pillar of the college’s new strategic directions. The emphasis is on letting that innovation appear from faculty and staff rather than being directed from the top down. 

“I want innovation to occur organically and be very much bottom up and middle out,” said Odenwald. 

The plan also carries a direct message to alumni, donors and the wider community: the quality of work happening at Alma College deserves facilities that reflect it. 

“My guess is this is, at a minimum, $50 million, up to $100 million. We’re against a clock here, and I worry about these buildings every day,” 

A recent waterline break on campus served as a reminder of just how much aging infrastructure still demands attention. Without these changes, the same issues will continue to affect campus life each year. 

For students who take classes in Dow or pass through Swanson each day, the plan signals that the spaces where learning happens are finally getting the attention they deserve.