7. The institution operates and maintains physical facilities, both on ...

SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III.
<strong>7.</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>institution</strong> <strong>operates</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>maintains</strong> <strong>physical</strong> <strong>facilities</strong>,
<strong>both</strong> on <strong>and</strong> off campus, that are adequate to serve the needs
of the <strong>institution</strong>’s educational programs, support services,
<strong>and</strong> mission related activities. (Comprehensive St<strong>and</strong>ard
3.11.3)
Compliance
Non-compliance
Narrative
<strong>The</strong> University <strong>operates</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>maintains</strong> adequate <strong>facilities</strong> to serve the needs of the <strong>institution</strong>’s
educational programs, support services, <strong>and</strong> mission related activities. VCU is principally housed on two
campuses located in Richmond. <strong>The</strong> 90.6-acre Monroe Park Campus is on the western perimeter of
downtown in the picturesque residential area known as the “Fan District.” Twenty-two blocks east is the
52.4-acre VCU Medical Center, adjacent to the State Capital. Between the two campuses, VCU occupies
196 buildings, 54 of which were built prior to 1900 <strong>and</strong> 52 are designated as historic or lie within a
historic district. Located on the Monroe Park Campus are the College of Humanities <strong>and</strong> Sciences (with
its Schools of Mass Communications, Government <strong>and</strong> Public Affairs, <strong>and</strong> World Studies), the Honor’s
College, University College, <strong>and</strong> the schools of Arts, Business, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies,
<strong>and</strong> Social Work. Major buildings on the Academic Campus include the Snead Hall (Business), East Hall
<strong>and</strong> West Hall (Engineering), Hibbs Hall (general classrooms), Oliver Hall (Education), Temple Building
(Mass Communications <strong>and</strong> general classrooms), Grace E. Harris Hall (general classrooms <strong>and</strong> student
services), Trani Center for Life Sciences Building, Cabell Library, Siegel Center (athletic center), Pollack
Building (Arts), Fine Arts Building (crafts, painting, printmaking, <strong>and</strong> sculpture), <strong>and</strong> Student Commons.
In addition the student residence halls, several administrative <strong>and</strong> student services buildings are located
on this campus as well (for example, University Bookstore <strong>and</strong> Cary Street Recreation Center).
Housed at the VCU Medical College of Virginia Campus are the schools of Allied Health Professions,
Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, <strong>and</strong> Pharmacy. Major buildings, in addition to MCV Hospital, include
Sanger Hall (general classrooms <strong>and</strong> laboratories), Lyons Dental Building, Wood Building (Dentistry),
Kontos Medical Sciences Building, School of Nursing Building, Smith Building (Pharmacy), Tompkins-
McCaw Library, <strong>and</strong> the Jonah L. Larrick Student Center. Various other buildings house administrative
units, laboratories, <strong>and</strong> other services.
VCU also offers the Master of Social Work program in Alex<strong>and</strong>ria, Virginia. However, this program is
being phased out. This facility includes classrooms, faculty <strong>and</strong> administration offices, a computer
laboratory, student lounge, <strong>and</strong> small library all in one building. Parking is available for up to 100
vehicles <strong>and</strong> is near the Metro (the public transportation system in Northern Virginia).
Virginia Commonwealth University – School of the Arts in Qatar is housed in buildings owned by the
Qatar Foundation. <strong>The</strong>se <strong>facilities</strong> are designed to meet the specifications of VCU <strong>and</strong> are equipped with
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the best current equipment to support its programs. Located on the ground floor of the facility is the
VCUQatar Library. Other learning resources are located throughout the <strong>facilities</strong> <strong>and</strong> include the writing
laboratory, wood shop, media support services, the gallery, <strong>and</strong> the interior design resource room.
<strong>The</strong> Inger <strong>and</strong> Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences is located on 342 acres in Charles City
County. <strong>The</strong> Rice Center is located along Virginia’s largest aquatic ecosystem, the James River. <strong>The</strong> Rice
Center is a major component in VCU’s Life Sciences program <strong>and</strong> includes a recently completed 4,900
square foot education facility.
Finally, VCU owns 89 acres in Hanover County which formerly served as an animal research facility site.
Today it is used sporadically by Forensic Science faculty as the University determines a suitable use for
the property.
<strong>The</strong> Facilities Management Division’s (FMD) purpose is to enable the University to carry out its mission
of teaching, research <strong>and</strong> public service by providing cost-effective <strong>and</strong> efficient planning, design,
construction, <strong>and</strong> maintenance services. In fulfilling this mission, FMD has primary responsibility for:
development of the University’s Master Site Plan; translating the Master Site Plan into multi-year
development plans, <strong>and</strong> preparation of biennial capital outlay requests. After capital requests are
approved, the Division oversees the execution phase. Capital budget planning <strong>and</strong> execution follows
formal State review <strong>and</strong> approval procedures. <strong>The</strong> FMD website includes links to the departmental site
which include information on current <strong>and</strong> upcoming capital projects, the capital budgeting process,
space planning guidelines, <strong>and</strong> other relevant <strong>facilities</strong> information.
<strong>The</strong> FMD web page contains
which provides <strong>facilities</strong>-related news of interest <strong>and</strong> a link to a
web site detailing construction contract bidding information, GIS maps, maps showing zone
maintenance areas, snow removal priorities, campus maps, police jurisdiction areas <strong>and</strong> other
information of use to University constituents.
Planning <strong>and</strong> Design area includes a listing of
newly approved capital projects with background information on each.
In addition to University facility development activities, FMD also provides project planning <strong>and</strong>
construction services to the VCU Health System Authority. Because the Authority <strong>operates</strong> the teaching
hospitals utilized by the University to train medical students, coordination of development of <strong>facilities</strong>
for <strong>both</strong> entities is essential. FMD also <strong>maintains</strong> a close relationship with the Virginia Biotechnology
Research Park. <strong>The</strong> Park is a joint venture of the University, the Commonwealth of Virginia, <strong>and</strong> the City
of Richmond. When fully developed, the Park will contain over 1.5 million square feet of research
laboratories, office <strong>and</strong> support space, <strong>and</strong> will serve as a location for 3,000 researchers, scientists,
engineers, <strong>and</strong> technicians to carry out their activities. In addition to private corporations, the Park
provides space for entrepreneurial efforts of University faculty.
FMD is a statewide leader in assessing the need for increased funding to correct accumulated deferred
higher education <strong>facilities</strong> maintenance. For the past three years VCU has used Sightlines, LLC, a
company that provides <strong>facilities</strong> benchmarking services. Using Sightlines, LLC, VCU is able to assess the
effectiveness of its deferred maintenance program in terms of funding <strong>and</strong> effectiveness of program
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execution. This process allows VCU to more effectively use its deferred maintenance funding by
choosing the most appropriate project categories in which to invest.
As part of its capital planning responsibilities, FMD’s University Planning Office conducts an annual space
inventory to document the types <strong>and</strong> amounts of space utilized. University Planning <strong>maintains</strong> a
website, which provides access, subject to password protection, to building floor plans, building <strong>and</strong>
departmental space allocations, space allocations by the organizational unit <strong>and</strong> summary reports
showing number, location, <strong>and</strong> size of classrooms <strong>and</strong> laboratories, as well as space allocations by type
of space <strong>and</strong> space allocations by program.
Through its Physical Plant Department, the Division assesses the condition of academic, research,
administrative <strong>and</strong> other space, <strong>and</strong> develops plans for correction of deficiencies. Since 2008, VCU has
entered all its properties in to the Commonwealth Facility Inventory Condition <strong>and</strong> Assessment System
(FICUS). This data entry requires VCU to conduct a full assessment of each system in every building.
Each facility is now inspected every three years <strong>and</strong> system data is updated. FICUS enables PPD to have
a more accurate representation of the current <strong>and</strong> future condition of VCU’s <strong>facilities</strong> <strong>and</strong> use that
information to make project <strong>and</strong> funding decisions. Identifying <strong>and</strong> resolving existing deficiencies is an
integral part of the multi-year development plan <strong>and</strong> the biennial capital outlay request. <strong>The</strong> current
Facilities Condition Report is available upon request.
Three organizational units have responsibility for operation <strong>and</strong> maintenance of University <strong>facilities</strong>.
<strong>The</strong>se units work in concert <strong>and</strong> share expertise to ensure that adequate <strong>facilities</strong> are provided in
support of the University’s mission.
<strong>The</strong> Physical Plant Department is the functional unit responsible for maintaining the majority of
University <strong>facilities</strong>.
<strong>The</strong> University’s Division of Student Affairs <strong>operates</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>maintains</strong> dormitories, student centers,
<strong>and</strong> recreational <strong>facilities</strong>.
<strong>The</strong> Athletics Department <strong>operates</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>maintains</strong> <strong>facilities</strong> associated with intercollegiate
athletics.
Each of these departments is dedicated to providing timely, quality workmanship <strong>and</strong> service delivered
in a cost-effective manner.
<strong>The</strong> Physical Plant Department <strong>maintains</strong> a website that contains a wealth of information for users of
department services. Specifically, the site contains listings of department contacts for various services,
the appropriate contact in the event of emergencies, <strong>and</strong> an automated form for submitting a work
request. <strong>The</strong> Physical Plant Department also conducts an annual survey to determine the degree of
satisfaction with cleaning services. <strong>The</strong> goal is to continually improve services <strong>and</strong> the survey provides
feedback on the adequacy of current efforts. A copy of the survey results is available on request.
<strong>The</strong> Office of Institutional Research <strong>and</strong> Evaluation (IRE) conducts a biannual utilization analysis of
undergraduate <strong>and</strong> graduate instructional space at Virginia Commonwealth University. Course
information is compiled by IRE. <strong>The</strong> University’s Facilities Management Division provides room
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SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III.
inventory information. <strong>The</strong> Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences provides information on
MCV Campus course <strong>and</strong> room assignments. From this analysis, IRE prepares a data file of courses <strong>and</strong>
room assignments at VCU, excluding professional degree program instruction delivered in the schools of
Medicine <strong>and</strong> Dentistry, that is provided to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) for
their statewide assessment of classroom <strong>and</strong> class labs utilization. <strong>The</strong> University reports the results of
the utilization analysis as part of the annual statewide Report on Institutional Effectiveness (ROIE). IRE
also publishes the Classroom Use on the Academic Campus report that shows the details of the class
scheduling patterns of the Academic Campus' most heavily utilized classrooms. Instructional classroom
<strong>and</strong> laboratory space data for first professional degree programs in Medicine <strong>and</strong> Dentistry are
maintained by the respective schools, in coordination with the Office of the Vice President for Health
Sciences, <strong>and</strong> reported to its accrediting agencies <strong>and</strong> professional organizations as required.
When decisions must be made concerning utilization, renovation or construction of space that crosses
organizational boundaries, the vice-presidents meet to discuss the issues <strong>and</strong> develop a
recommendation to the President. <strong>The</strong> vice-presidents also make recommendations related to the
Master Site Plan <strong>and</strong> capital outlay priorities.
Additional Evidence:
VCU Maps website (If you get a security warning, click on Open or Yes)
Six-Year Capital Plan, Funding Source <strong>and</strong> Maintenance Reserve
Current <strong>and</strong> Upcoming Capital Projects
State Higher Education Fixed Assets Guidelines
Higher Education Facilities Condition Reporting Guidelines
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