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

SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III.
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
Virginia Commonwealth University P a g e | 2