Universities' Space Utilization

The report addresses ways in which the universities can better manage the existing space on their main campuses. Currently, each university uses classrooms, on average, less than 60 percent of each day. Not only does this use fall below the Board of Regents’ current guidelines regarding utilization of classroom space, but these guidelines may themselves be set too low to ensure classrooms are adequately used. The report recommends that the Board of Regents continue their efforts to develop new classroom utilization standards and hold the universities accountable for increasing their use of classroom space. The report also recommends that as the universities take steps to increase classroom use, they should focus on some of the most expensive rooms, those equipped with instructional technology, which are also underutilized. One way to improve classroom use would be for the universities to schedule more classes through central scheduling offices and more fully automate their scheduling function. The universities can also adopt new practices, such as space audits, to help improve utilization.