The 6 Principles of Facilities Stewardship

This downloadable PDF is of an article from Facilities Manager by Karvey H. Kaiser and Eva Klein, which is in turn an excerpt from a forthcoming new APPA book, Strategic Capital Development: The New Model for Campus Development.

[I]n the words of Teddy Roosevelt, the buildings and grounds of an in- stitution must be treated “as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value.”

The notion of value can, and should, mean financial value. But, value has a broader implication, which includes the value an institution ascribes to its tradi- tions, to the protection of its symbolic features, and to the continued utility of its structural components. Ideally, a statement proclaiming stewardship principles should form the grounding for a comprehensive facilities plan or master plan. Also ideally, facilities stewardship should reflect a broad responsibility of govern- ing board members and senior leaders—in addition to the president or chancellor. Today, as the average tenure of a president/chancellor is less than seven years, their decisions must be part of a lengthy, continuous stewardship process—pro- tected because it is an indispensable, shared responsibility.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

December 1 Deadline: Facilities Performance Indicators Survey

There are 5 modules to the PFI survey, but if you complete just 1, 2, and 4, APPA will provide you all sorts of data access and discounts to survey data and reporting. But the deadline this year will not be extended. The current issue of APPA's Facilities Manager has a nice article (PDF) about how the FPI reports and results are being used at the University of North Carolina:

In the highly competitive world of education, capital assets are but one challenge. Decision makers are faced with a myriad of challenges amongst them being shrinking state support, greater student demands, greater competition for quality faculty, greater competition for a diminishing pool of contract and grants, and sky-rocketing utility costs. Can you really blame a campus that decides to realign a portion of its CRDM (capital renewal and deferred maintenance) money to address another emergency requirement? It is our responsibility to inform them of the cost of making such a decision.

APPA & NACUBO 2008 Conference Reports

Who doesn't want to know what went on at the conference they didn't go to? Brief summaries of what went on at the NACUBO and APPA conferences this past summer are linked to here: APPA 2008 Conference Highlights (PDF), NACUBO in the Windy City.

Systemwide Use of APPA's Facilities Performance Indicators

The University of North Carolina system used APPA's Facilities Performance Indicators (FPI) systemwide, as part of a planning process described in Facilities Manager (PDF):

Jack Colby, assistant vice chancellor for facilities at North Carolina State University, saw yet another opportunity for FPI. His vision was to utilize the FPI to address the University of North Carolina System’s PACE initiative. The PACE initiative (President’s Advisory Committee for Efficiency and Effectiveness) was put in place to encourage universities within the UNC System to look for opportunities to benchmark their facilities organizations and continually improve their performance. Jack made his presentation to the System Board and got a commitment to support a systemwide initiative for the facilities managers at each of the system’s 17 campuses.

Perhaps the most important reason this initiative was so successful is that there was an agreement that each institution would go into this with the goal in mind of improving their own organization by reallocating resources within their operations. There would be no realignment of appropriations from one campus to another. This commitment by the System office helped institutions feel comfortable in participating without a fear of loss.

APPA's Facilities Performance Indicators Survey

The time is now for facilities managers to participate in this year's survey. Previous surveys are available for purchase on the APPA website and summary reports for 2005-06 and 2006-07 are available at no charge. Access is also available to a series of webinars about the FPI report and dashboards.

APPA's Facilities Performance Indicators Survey is an annual collection and reporting of data related to educational facilities and an integrated research information database. Developed and produced by APPA's Information and Research Committee, the Facilities Performance Indicators Survey takes a comprehensive look at facilities operating costs, staffing levels and expenses, building and space costs and usage, strategic financial measures, and much more.

Must-Read: Educational Facilities and the Impact of Technology, Expectations, and Competition

APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities has published its 2007 Thought Leaders Series report titled "Educational Facilities and the Impact of Technology, Expectations, and Competition" (PDF) including the top ten critical facilities issues). We highly recommend that you download and read this report. You may also call 703.684.1446 to receive a complimentary printed copy, but we recommend being sustainable and downloading the digital file instead. (You can search inside it!) The top ten critical facilities issues, well-explained in the report, are:

• Improving Communications
• Addressing Sustainability
• Balancing and Articulating Expectations
• Integrating with IT
• Focusing on the Customer
• Aligning Facilities Planning with Institutional Goals
• Making Master Planning More Effective
• Implementing Total Cost of Ownership Strategies
• Managing Maintenance and Adaptive Reuse
• Instituting Metrics for Performance Measurement

Many thanks to the nine SCUP-member "thought leaders" who participated in the April 2007 APPA Thought Leaders Summit which was the source of this report: Christopher K. Ahoy, Iowa State University; James E. Alty Jr., Wake Forest University; Dave Button, University of Regina; Joseph C. Fisher, West Virginia University; John Hall, University of Texas at Arlington; Mernoy E. Harrison Jr., Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix Campus; Jay Kahn, Keene State College; L. Carole Wharton, LC Wharton, LLC; and John O. White, University of California-Merced.