Space per student at many colleges and universities has tripled since the 1970s. The annual cost for maintenance of underutilized classrooms could be as high as $50 billion. In 2016, Louisiana legislators sought to tackle this issue through the Know Before You Build Act, which requires trustees at state universities to publicize building utilization reports by day of week and time of day and hold public hearings before proposing any construction project worth over $10 million. The bill passed unanimously. Several other states have since moved to require the publication of building utilization reports, and a handful have set targets for building usage.
View the model policy HERE.
Shortly after joining ACTA in the summer of 2017, I edited a blog about the University of Akron (UA) that left me feeling positively hopeful about that public research university. Having just moved to Washington, DC after working at a major Midwest public research university, I was one happy editor to take on a piece […]
Virginia State University (VSU) was the first fully-public historically black university in the United States. It would a terrible shame to see such a historically important university disappear from the Commonwealth. Yet, thanks to budget woes, the future does not look bright for VSU. The school estimates that low enrollment this year (550 fewer students […]
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