Campus and Building Planning Committee

Comprehensive Campus and Building Planning Committee

Objective

To devise a comprehensive space and building plan for the next ten years that not only acknowledges our university’s academic, co-curricular, and cultural evolution but also pragmatically addresses the maintenance, integration, and optimization of our physical facilities and resources, as well as the aesthetic and ecological landscape of the university’s campuses.

Committee Membership

• Lauren Bass, Manager of Athletic Business Operations
• Tim Baroody, City Manager, City of Fredericksburg
• Ruth Davison, Director of Compliance/Title IX Coordinator/ADA Coordinator
• Craig Erwin, Vice President for Administration & Finance and CFO
• Dave Fleming, Dean of Residence Life and Housing and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
• Nathan Francis, Student
• Brian Gorham, Executive Director, Facilities Operations
• Rachel Graefe-Anderson, Associate Professor of Finance
• Christine Henry, Associate Professor of Historic Preservation
• Gary Hobson, Capital Outlay Director
• Michael Hubbard, Dahlgren Campus Director
• Amy Jessee, Executive Director of University Communications
• Jeff McClurken, Vice President of Strategy and Chief of Staff
• Caitlin Moore, Associate Director of Athletics
• Tim O’Donnell, Provost
• Debra Schleef, Associate Provost for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness
• Jerry Slezak, Director, Digital Learning Support
• Suzanne Sumner, Professor of Mathematics
• Katie Turcotte, Vice President for Advancement
• Susan Worrell, Executive Director of Events

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Assessment: Undertake a thorough review of the current state of the university’s physical infrastructure, focusing on the condition of facilities and their current and future utility.
2. Utilize Facilities Condition Reports and other data: Systematically integrate findings from Gordian facilities condition report, and our own institutional data to identify vulnerabilities, prioritize repairs, and project future maintenance needs.
3. Vision: Define a holistic space and building plan for the University and its three campuses that includes academic programs (current and new), community values and priorities, sustainability goals, and efficient space utilization.
4. Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate proactive interaction with faculty, students, staff, alumni, and the larger community to capture diverse perspectives and needs.
5. Sustainability & Maintenance: Develop a strategic approach towards sustainability and routine maintenance, ensuring that aging facilities are either revitalized or repurposed based on their structural integrity and functional relevance and that new or newly renovated facilities have a plan to keep them that way.
6. Climate Action: Proactively identify facility modifications that increase resilience to climate impacts and reduce the campus’s carbon footprint. This includes considering energy efficiency, sustainable construction materials, green spaces, and water conservation techniques, building off of the work of the President’s Council on Sustainability.
7. Space Optimization: Identify underutilized or unused spaces and strategize their consolidation or repurposing to meet emerging institutional needs.
8. Implementation Strategy: Outline a phased approach for plan execution, complete with timelines, budget allocations, and potential funding avenues, while recognizing the varying pathways and timelines related to E&G and Auxiliary funding and approval.
9. Periodic Review: Understanding that there will be changes and priorities, include a process for periodic reviews to ensure that the plan remains relevant.
10. Transparency & Communication: Maintain a transparent dialogue with the university community, ensuring they are kept abreast of progress, challenges, and milestones.

Reporting and Time Frame:

1. An interim report highlighting key findings and preliminary recommendations to be submitted to the President by May 2024.
2. Draft of full comprehensive space and building plan by BOV retreat July 2024.
3. Final space and building plan to be approved no later than November 2024.
4. Subsequent reviews and revisions to be conducted at intervals not exceeding two years, and potentially annually.