Steward Your Physical Assets Through These Difficult Times
Every college and university are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, even the institutions that are household names around the world. The decisions you make to cope with your present realities will affect your future offerings, service level and brand. Gordian can work with you to establish a framework for decision-making based on objective data and historical and peer performance. With this data and expertise, you can rise to today’s challenges without sacrificing tomorrow’s goals.
Budget cuts require tradeoffs. With the right data, applied in an effective decision-making framework, leaders can understand the tradeoffs they are weighing, determine the likely implications of those decisions and ensure the choices made align with the long-term priorities of the institution.
Strategic investment means aligning short-term decisions with long-term priorities, so the first step is developing a common language for communicating how those priorities directly impact facilities management. Once common ground has been established from the boiler room to the board room, focus on growing those areas which are most in-line with institutional priorities.
It is rare to please everyone when making a decision about a university’s facilities. It is however possible to invite multiple stakeholders into the decision-making process and generate buy-in for swift, thoughtful action. This can be done by educating key stakeholders using a common vocabulary and providing an objective, data-based perspective of your physical assets.
Across higher education the average classroom is only used for about 60% of the day, so it’s safe to assume that EVERY institution out there has space that they can eliminate. It is critical to figure out where that space is, then communicating clearly about how and why it needs to be removed. As financial pressures mount, finding these spaces will be the fastest way for an institution to right-size, both in terms of physical space and mission-critical programs.
Yes. These uncertain times provide an opportunity to re-establish your vision of the future state of your organization and to evaluate potential short-term changes against your long-term vision.
“[ROPA] data has absolutely improved our operations. We get the opportunity to understand what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong and what we need to change.”
Tony Lombardo | Associate Vice President of Facilities and Property Oversight, Louisiana State University
Balance Today’s Budget With Tomorrow’s Goals
The economic effects of the pandemic have put tremendous pressure on college and university facilities budgets. Reductions are inevitable, if not imminent. The campuses that align today’s budget sacrifices with a long-term strategy will be best positioned for future success. We can help you balance your institutional mission and your financial realities through a focused, strategic assessment of critical facilities and dynamic, cloud-based access to your data to help with immediate and long-term action planning.
Is Asking How Much to Spend Really the Right Question?
Blog
The Power of Data in Uncertain Times
Resource
The State of Facilities in Higher Education, 7th Edition
Get Started Today
Contact us to talk about how you can use Gordian’s data, software and expertise to make confident decisions about the present and future states of your physical assets.
