Economic downturn. Budget constraints. Cost of attendance. Campus infrastructure needs. Building to compete. For many colleges and universities, these phrases have become all too familiar over the last five years. With today's economic challenges, educational institutions are finding themselves in constrained financial positions. They are…

This article addresses two of the most repeated questions in APPA (1) How can we convert our reactive maintenance operations to a planned and predictable operation? and (2) In addition, how can we do this with little or no additional resources? It seems reasonable to assume that if a department is short on resources and in a full-blown reactive…

At colleges and universities today, the increasing number of students is putting new pressure on facilities--and on facility staff. Student needs are also increasingly different, and most campus facilities have not kept up with the changing times. Facilities are expensive to build, maintain, and renovate, and costs are on the rise. Funds for…

Not long ago universities, colleges, and schools identified the management of facilities as the Physical Plant Office. Albeit, the services provided by the physical plant office included complex and highly technical functions, they were mainly focused on keeping building systems operating and the campus looking good. As important as these…

A growing number of educational institutions have discovered that a guided self-assessment solution helps them to consistently and cost-effectively obtain facility condition information and make better-informed capital planning decisions. Facility self-assessment employs a consistent, repeatable process for internal staff to quickly assess assets…

With detailed information about the costs and benefits of potential green investments, educational facilities can effectively evaluate which initiatives will ultimately provide the greatest results over the short and long term. Based on its overall goals, every school, college, or university will have different values and therefore different…

Whether planning, design, and construction (PDC) of buildings should be part of facilities management, with its traditional operations and maintenance functions, or separated from it, has been a divisive question on many campuses for a long time. Now, although it is not happening everywhere, facilities managers at a number of institutions, public…

This article reports on the historical meeting that took place March 23, 1914, with nearly a dozen "Association of Superintendents of Buildings and Grounds" leaders from Central Western Colleges and Universities in Chicago, IL. At that time, the term "superintendent of buildings and grounds" had only been adopted around the…

There is good reason to look at energy and sustainability as "the" capital investment--savings that can be achieved through energy conservation and other sustainability measures can help offset increasing deferred maintenance and capital renewal costs. The APPA Energy and Sustainability Assessment Tool (ESAT) provides a dynamic database…

CAUBO--the Canadian Association of University Business Officers--is a volunteer-driven organization that represents the administrative function of virtually all Canadian universities (CAUBO is the Canadian counterpart to NACUBO in the United States). Member committees provide direction and subject matter expertise, with each committee typically…

In music, transition can be "a progression from one key to another in a piece of music." Michael Watkins, author of "The First 90 Days" states, "Transitions are periods of opportunity, a chance to start afresh and to make needed changes in an organization." For those who are in the facilities world, transition can often refer to a change of…

"Higher education is at a crossroads," Kelly Baxley declared as he introduced the plenary session at the APPA 2013 conference in Minneapolis last August. "The sector urgently needs to innovate because becoming a savvy user of technology is now a requirement, regardless of industry or career path. The vast proliferation of mobile…

This article reports that since its founding in 1914, APPA has become a premier association serving its diverse membership of international educational institutions in all areas of facilities management. APPA's programs, products, and services are designed to equip facilities professionals with the technical knowledge and necessary…

Since its founding in 1914, APPA has become a premier association serving its diverse membership of international educational institutions in all areas of facilities management. APPA's programs, products, and services are designed to equip facilities professionals with the technical knowledge and necessary administrative acumen to fulfill their…

Facilities stewardship means high-level and pervasive commitment to optimize capital investments, in order to achieve a high-functioning and attractive campus. It includes a major commitment to capital asset preservation and quality. Stewardship is about the long view of an institution's past and future. It ultimately forms the backdrop for…