Decreased landscape budgets — Oddly, institutions don’t extend this maintenance expansion trend to their landscape programs. In spite of the fact that landscaping is a relatively inexpensive place to invest operating dollars, grounds coverage areas have actually decreased 3 to 4 percent during the last decade. “Given the demands of managing more space with fewer resources and at greater impact to the institution’s overall recruitment and retention goals, successful facilities departments are being pushed to develop creative responses to these challenges,” said Schiff. “Every campus we see developing effective solutions has in place programs to analyze objective data and utilize comparative metrics to track performance, communicate accomplishments, and articulate needs to the community or leadership.” According to the Sightlines report, among new strategies being used to respond to the current environment is maximizing investment return by investing with space utilization in mind, connecting renewal to mod- ernization, and investing to reduce current costs. Download the 2017 State of Facilities in Higher Education report at www.sightlines.com/insight/2017-state-of-facilities-in-higher-educa- tion.
report found that average campus facilities operating budgets increased from $5.51 per gross square foot (gsf) in 2007 to $5.94/gsf in 2016, a nearly 8 percent increase; the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers as reported by the federal government over that time has grown nearly 15.5 percent, almost twice as much. Aging buildings — A huge wave of campus facilities construction in the 1960s, which accommodated the surge in baby boomers, is reach- ing the end of its usefulness in the next decade, creating significant stress on institutions as to what to do with those buildings. This wave of aging buildings now represents 40 percent of the space on campuses. Maintenance capital demand — Another large wave of campus facil- ities construction in the 1990s-2000s will require massive maintenance outlays in the next decade, presenting a significant capital demand on institutions. This wave of further enrollment growth and expanding program demands represents another 30 percent of campus space. Increased maintenance budgets — Many institutions are recognizing the expanding need for facilities maintenance resources and, since the downturn of 2008-2009, have been increasing maintenance budgets to tackle the challenge. In fact, even in the face of tremendous space growth to match enrollment growth, facilities funding at research in- stitutions is up 14 percent. While overall facilities funding levels are down from the 2007-2009 window where resources often effectively met need, funding at baccalaureate and master’s institutions has in recent years been on the rise.
Information provided by Sightlines (www.sightlines.com).
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april 2018
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