More than two years into the pandemic, higher education leadership are finding themselves involved in new conversations, often with an audience who is looking to facilities to ensure there is a safe and healthy environment across campus. When meeting with campus leadership and key stakeholders, it is important for facilities leadership to convey the challenges being faced not only at their campus but across the industry. Many organizations want to believe they are unique, but when it comes to facilities, there is a lot to be learned from benchmarking and database trends.
Looking at the past can be a good indicator of current needs. Across North America, there have been two major construction booms when college and university campuses have grown their physical footprint to meet industry demands:
- First, in the 1950s through the 1970s, as higher education became more common and accessible through federally funded grants and loans, many campuses built new buildings quickly to meet the growing demand. These facilities are now 50 to 75 years old and, for many campuses, have not been renovated or modernized to meet today’s standards.
- The second boom started in the late 1990s, with the renewed focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs and research. Institutions built new research facilities and classroom spaces to attract top ranked faculty and students in a very competitive market. Today, these facilities are 20 to 30 years old and can already be showing their age.
These two construction booms create overlapping issues for facilities and financial leaders trying to address the growing needs for their campus. Let’s take a deep dive into five key challenges facing higher ed leaders as they strive to maintain the institutions mission, make crucial decisions about aging campus space and adapt to the monumental disruption of the last two years.
Unbalanced Space Profile:
As each campus community has their definitions of what the new normal looks like, many have come to realize what facilities leadership has known for a while: space is typically underutilized on campus. Many organizations are evaluating how much office space, teaching space and social space is needed on campus. For many, the remote environments for teaching, learning and administrative work have highlighted the surplus of space. In April of 2021, APPA partnered with Gordian to release an estimate that American higher ed campuses are saddled with a facilities backlog north of $112 billion.
The most recent construction boom continued to add space to most campuses. Only recently, the conversation has shifted in some board rooms regarding eliminating older space with new facilities coming online or divesting in certain facilities to limit the facilities backlog on campus.
Limited Capital Back into Existing Facilities
Since the Great Recession, colleges and universities have not funded their facilities capital renewal needs at the same level. While the spending appears to be the same on a dollar per square foot basis, the buying power has been diminished with inflation, uncertain supply chains and labor shortages. When campus leadership cannot keep up with the facilities needs, the result is a growing facilities backlog. Many leadership teams do not know what their needs are today, let alone what their projected needs are should funding for facilities reinvestment continue to decline.
Earlier this year, Gordian published the 9th edition of its State of Facilities in Higher Education report, which documented a 19% plunge last year in capital investments across college and university campuses. Major projects were slowed or halted, and recurring facilities expenditures dipped further.
Operations Responsibilities Increasing Without Funding
Similar to capital investments, most institutions have not increased facilities operating budgets to keep up with inflation, let alone the growing demands of their campus. There are key differences in what is being asked of the facilities organization today compared to 10 years ago. Most institutions reacted to the pandemic by increasing the cleaning cadence or standard for their campus, upgrading or modifying their HVAC systems and improved signage. Facilities leadership are expected to maintain the new service levels or standards as the community returns to campus and address the need to balance reactive maintenance work with beneficial planned maintenance programs. All of this while managing through the Great Resignation, where many colleges and universities are now competing with private contractors to hire maintenance, custodial and grounds professionals.
Enrollment Decline
While this is not news for most leaders in higher education over the last decade, many organizations are projecting that enrollment figures will continue to decline for the next 18 years, as birthrates are down. Institutional leaders are bringing this topic to the table to supplement conversations regarding space management and campus or programmatic growth, and the future of their organizations. Being resilient and competitive while also making smart financial decisions becomes key for facilities and financial leaders.
Increased Role in Campus Leadership
The State of Facilities in Higher Education report includes survey results showing that 56% of facilities leaders said they have more influence at their campus today than before the pandemic. While many appreciate the shift, it also comes with a responsibility to provide information to key stakeholders to help influence major decisions. As the role of facilities elevates and is a key stakeholder in the community, it is critical that the leadership team question the status quo, develop credible plans leveraging available data, engage with key stakeholders, and create realistic goals for change. Progress takes time and shifting an organization’s decision making, operations response and culture can be an ongoing challenge.
Overall, the challenges facing facilities leaders today have only been elevated with the pandemic and the spotlight that has been put on facilities organizations and their leadership. Now that facilities leaders have more influence on their campus, it is critical to help educate other key stakeholders and leadership teams on the capital and operational demands for their campus. Shifting the conversation towards a proactive approach to facilities ownership and management will have a long term impact on each organization.
Gabby Rosas has two decades of experience in education facilities planning. She assists higher education leaders with the development of sustainable capital plans as part of her role at Gordian.