Focused Report

Comprehensive Standard 3.11.3

The institution operates and maintains physical facilities, both on and off campus, that appropriately serve the needs of the institution's educational programs, support services, and other mission-related activities. (Physical facilities)

Off-Site Committee Finding

The Institution provided information on the size and location of the facilities along with some pictures and maps to enable the Off-Site Committee to develop a perspective on the 230 acre campus and its buildings. It should be noted the Master Plan for the institution was done in February 1996, and an update is scheduled in 2007-2008. The institution provided an adequate description of the facilities, but did not address two major factors: 1) a determination by the users (faculty and staff) regarding the functionality and adequacy of the facilities, consistent with the intended use of the facility and 2) an overall operation and maintenance plan for the facilities that deals with current repairs, emergencies, preventive maintenance and deferred maintenance. The institution did not include the methodology that it has in place to insure the upkeep of facilities both in the short range (budget year) and the long range (3-5 years). The On-Site Committee should review evidence to address these issues.

Albany State University's Response

Albany State University has an overall operation and maintenance plan for the facilities that deals with current repairs, emergencies, preventive maintenance and deferred maintenance. The maintenance plan of the university is part of the overall Preventative Maintenance Program for the University System of Georgia Facilities [1] . Mandated in this plan is the need for qualified staff [2] equipment policies [3] , the dissemination of training and information regarding health and safety regulations [4] [5] . Also included is hazardous waste facility planning [6] and an ASU spill prevention and control plan [7] . Documentation includes health and safety inspection reports from 2003 to 2006 ( [8] [9] [10] [11] as well as work order forms for specific services [12] , [13] . Overall, the entire maintenance of facilities at ASU, is governed by the TMA Work Control System [14] . The TMA system is Maintenance Management Software that schedules preventative maintenance, maintains inventory and possess a state of the art work order system.

The institution also has in place a budget mechanism to insure the upkeep of facilities both in the short range (budget year) and the long range (3-5 years). ASU follows all preplanning guidelines for all projects and maintenance established by the Board of Regents (BOR) University System of Georgia Preplanning Guidelines [15] . The preplanning guidelines include principles for capital resource allocation [16] and space guidelines for building program development and building design philosophy. One of the key goals of the BOR facilities planning guidelines is to ensure that projects and facilities upkeep is calculated, evaluated to achieve goals of campus users, and funding appropriation is sufficient to support intended projects [17] . For example, the BOR conducts in-depth analysis and evaluation of Campus Preventative Programs and uses results from benchmarking data, best practices and other industry standards to effect changes and use of results in system preventative plans (see [1] pages 1-10 for assessment and evaluation process).The results of our faculty and staff facilities survey regarding the adequacy of the facilities can be reviewed in CS 2.11.2 of this focused report.

Supporting Documentation

[1] Preventative Maintenance Program for the University System of Georgia Facilities

[2] Facilities Management_Job_Descriptions

[3] Environmental Health and Safety Regulations

[4] Albany State University Equipment Policy

[5] Albany State University Fire Safety Handbook

[6] Hazardous Waste Facility Plan

[7] Spill Prevention and Control Plan

[8] Health_And_Fire_Safety_Inspection_Report_Jan-Feb_2003

[9] Health_And_Fire_Safety_Inspection_Report_June-July_2003

[10] Health_And_Fire_Safety_Inspection_Report_Aug-Sep_2003

[11] Health_And_Fire_Safety_Inspection_Report_Oct_2006