As the leaves change colors around campus, students are preparing for the final weeks of the fall semester. Photo Elise Penn/ODU Intern.
Space Planning & Inventory
In an effort to maintain a consolidated database for space use evaluation, a program of auditing and review will be conducted periodically by the office of Space Management. Each review will require a complete validation of all space currently assigned and its current usage. Every four years an in depth review of space used by the University's six colleges and eight major organizational units will be conducted to facilitate future space programming and inform overall master plan development.
FM:Systems allows you to browse the up-to-date university inventory of building use and floor plans - MIDAS login from a campus location required.
Facilities Inventory Process
The University's room inventory must be updated on a yearly basis and submitted to fulfill a number of state reporting requirements. These reports include but are not limited to the following:
State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV)
Auxiliary Indirect Cost Reporting
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools SACSCOC
Peer Institutions
(the SMPM will speak specifically to the SCHEV report since the other reports are derived from subsets of this report)
Facilities Inventory Schedule
July 1
The Office of Space Management disseminates complete departmental room inventory forms and instructions to the College Deans for distribution to their departments.
August 15
Departmental room inventory updates due back to the Office of Space Management.
August 31
Data input is completed and a draft report is prepared.
November 1
The Room Inventory Report is transmitted to the SCHEV.
Classroom and Instructional Laboratory Utilization
Each fall the University prepares documents regarding the use of space by recording all academic activity in instructional classrooms and instructional laboratories. This data is reported biennially to the SCHEV in the form of the UT-50 report. The UT-50 report is a report of the room inventory in conjunction with the academic class schedule. The combination is used to generate classroom and class lab utilization scores. SCHEV utilizes the scores in reviewing and approving our capital outlay construction proposals. It is imperative that the departments conduct and report all scheduled academic activity in a classroom or a class laboratory. The departments should also record all informal class activities related to their courses.
Current Commonwealth of Virginia Standards require that on average a University's classrooms should be used 40 hours (Monday through Friday) and when in use the occupancy should be 60% on average. Additionally the current standards for the University's instructional laboratories requires that on average they be used 24 hours (Monday through Friday), and when in use their occupancy should average 70%.
The room utilization data helps generate the projection of space requirements for the University and is used to
a) justify capital outlay construction projects
b) be an indicator for departmental space needs
c) support budgetary presentations to acquire funding approval from the Legislature
The Office of Space Management and Academic Affairs are charged with monitoring the University's inventory of classrooms to ensure sufficient classrooms are available to meet the instructional mission of the University. The Office of Academic Affairs will allocate the priority assignment rights to classrooms to ensure an allocation that is consistent with the individual academic departmental needs for instructional space.
The University Space Manager keeps a schedule of available classrooms and class laboratories in BANNER for utilization by the Registrar's Office. Utilizing this schedule, the Registrar's Office will prepare a report showing the previous academic year's use of classrooms by department and make a recommendation to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs outlining the departmental allocations of instructional space for the next academic year. After the review and approval by the Vice President of Academic Affairs, the Registrar's Office will publish the priority assignment rights for all classrooms and laboratories for the forthcoming academic year and utilize the priority assignment rights allocation as the basis for the next year's academic schedule beginning with the fall semester class schedule. Assignment of room capacity is determined by the University Space Officer and all colleges must follow the capacity limitations and requirements identified. Failure to adhere to this provision has the potential to negatively impact the university's SCHEV utilization scores.
The following benchmarks will be used for initiating the process for creating additional classroom assets.
When 44 hours of classroom use is the finding of the SCHEV Utilization Report, the University will assess its need for one or more additional classrooms.
When 46 hours of classroom use is the finding of the SCHEV Utilization Report, the University will begin locating and designing one or more additional classrooms. At this time size, seating capacity, style, furniture, configuration, and location become tasks to be addressed based on the most recently available information and instructional pedagogies.
When 48 hours of classroom use is the finding of the SCHEV Utilization Report, the University will bring one or more additional classrooms on-line prior to the next Fall semester.
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