A Master Facilities Planning Process That Focuses on ROI

ANALYZING RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) is a beneficial yet underutilized factor in most facilities planning processes. In a time when public funding is decreasing, it is advantageous to develop capital improvement plans that demonstrate how to achieve maximum financial benefits from investments in major construction and renovation projects. This article demonstrates how a comprehensive master facilities planning process at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, North Carolina, will help persuade county officials to support a $687 million capital campaign resulting in a positive ROI for students, the institution, and the community. INTEGRATED PLANNING APPROACH The objective of the Long-Range Academic and Facilities Plan (LRAFP) at CPCC was to propose a series of capital projects and real estate acquisitions for the 10-year period 2017-2026. The methodology used to define the capital projects was to identify future space needs to accommodate the enhancement and expansion of academic programs to serve students, citizens, and community employers. CPCC's approach to long-range facilities planning is very comprehensive and inclusive. Beginning in early 2015, in order to identify new construction projects and programmatic renovations, every unit at the college was given the opportunity to provide input and request space via mini internal charrettes. Those requests were consolidated into a comprehensive database that was then sorted, analyzed, and prioritized by the CPCC senior leadership team. Each request was assigned to one or more campuses. The requests from each campus were then analyzed and consolidated into one or more capital projects. The LRAFP is the largest and most comprehensive in the history of CPCC. It incorporates the following aspects of integrated planning that strategically support the academic program, enrollment growth, technology, talent, facilities, and land acquisition plans (figure 1): 1. Supports the Academic Program Plan in scaling up existing high-demand programs, introducing new hightech programs, targeting workforce development needs, and expanding K-12 partnerships. 2. Includes an Enrollment Growth Plan to increase enrollment based on external factors such as population growth and economic projections as well as internal factors like CPCC's changing student demographics, expansion of the academic program portfolio, and the impact of new instructional space and buildings. 3. Incorporates a Strategic Technology Plan and the adoption of a "Bring Your Own PC" (BYOPC) model to reduce the annual expense of refreshing computers in labs and classrooms and facilitate the move to a wireless infrastructure and teaching environment. 4. Contains a Talent Acquisition Plan to project and recruit the number of new full-time and part-time faculty that will be needed to support the projected enrollment growth and teach the additional course sections. 5. Includes an Infrastructure Assessment Study that addresses the condition of all existing facilities at CPCC's six campuses and three centers to ensure safe, effective, and efficient use. 6. Contains a Land Acquisition Plan designed to maximize existing land, preserve existing assets, and justify the need to purchase additional land. RESULTS OF ROI ANALYSES [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] ROI ANALYSIS ON ACADEMIC PROGRAMS The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) has a statewide standard of 100 assignable square feet (ASF) to one full-time equivalent (FTE). FTE is NCCCS's standard for reporting enrollments and funding. Since most community college students are part time, one FTE is equal to approximately 3.5 students at CPCC. An ROI analysis was conducted on the instructional program space requests submitted by representatives of the academic units to help further evaluate and prioritize their requests based on how well they * increased the ASF/FTE Ratio toward the statewide standard of 100 ASF/FTE, * increased Budget FTE (formula funding) to justify the cost of new construction and renovation projects, and * positively impacted NCCCS Accountability Measures (performance funding). …