The university's director of space planning told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee last week that she will launch a series of utilization studies in an attempt "to centralize space planning at the university and more closely align it with academic planning."

"We're going to be looking at utilization from a number of factors," including research dollars per square foot and full-time-equivalent faculty, staff and students, Ann Newman told FSEC members at the April 25 meeting. She noted, however, during later discussion, that research funds are not the definitive measure for obtaining-or maintaining-space.

"Unless someone is absolutely not going to do any research at all, we're not going to remove their lab," she said. "People need to have their space to do their research. However, they may not need as much space."

Newman's office also will collect "benchmarking" information from peer institutions.

Once the overall study is completed, Newman said, a university-wide committee-ideally rooted in her office and comprised of deans, department chairs and members of the faculty and administration-will begin taking steps toward developing a formal space-allocation policy for UB. None currently exists at the university.

"The provost and I both feel very strongly that it would be a good thing to have," she said of the policy. "People would be able to have a set of expectations about what kind of space they're going to have."

More a set of guidelines than any hard-and-fast rules, she explained, the policy would be one of many "flavors," reflective of the varied research and relative needs at the university.

"It's really going to be a set of guidelines to allow my office in the future to make space-allocation decisions in a way that everyone feels is equitable."

Newman, who is charged with the planning of both academic and non-academic spaces but excluding residence halls and apartments, emphasized throughout the meeting her desire to plan according to-and not in spite of-academic needs.

"I don't want to do space planning in a vacuum," she said. "I want to do it in response to academic needs.

"The relationships I've developed with the various deans and department heads are really important so that I can have a sense of what people are planning to do, what areas you are going to grow, what are the areas I need to accommodate," she said.

Newman said it's important for people to remain mindful of space efficiency, especially in proving that UB is using what space it has as well as it can when seeking additional building funds. As well, research grants and hiring can impact space, she said, and her office needs to be apprised of those developments.

"I think it's important that people think about the space implications of what they're planning to do and involve my office as soon as possible," said Newman, who worked as a space planner at MIT for six years.

Another part of the planning puzzle is space inventory currently being cataloged at UB. Documenting inventory is required by the state for purposes of indirect cost recovery, Newman explained, and inventory currently being taken should cause no alarm.

"We're doing this to everyone," she said. "It doesn't really mean anything."

Some other projects currently proceeding through Newman's office include improving UB's public-corridor design and exterior signage, and developing funding requests for the campus' capital-plan request for the next five-year cycle. Newman also is actively involved in discussions on the Lee Road development, which, she noted, could possibly lend itself to faculty-specific space, such as a faculty club.

Several faculty members reiterated their concerns about-and objections to-a proposal to use the ground and first floors of the Undergraduate Library in Capen to house student services.

"What I'd like to say on that is that it's something we're looking at; it's not a done deal," said Newman, who is heading the committee to study the issue. UB's search for an archival storage facility off campus potentially could free up space in the libraries for this other purpose.

"And then the question is, would that allow us to provide a much better customer-service experience for the students?" she explained.

Austin Booth, humanities librarian for Lockwood Library, cautioned that archiving books may not free up the necessary space.

"We are over-capacity," she said, explaining that library shelves considered functional are only around 80 percent full. "And we're way beyond that-and we're buying more books all the time.

"I just want to be careful about the impression that that (proposed) storage facility is going to free up a lot of space," she said.

In other business, Joseph Mollendorf, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, gave a brief report on the results of a faculty survey conducted from Feb. 19 to March 19 by the Research and Creative Activities Committee, with the assistance of Buffalo Survey and Research Inc., which reviewed the survey for bias. The email survey was issued to gauge "what's on the minds of the faculty regarding research and creative activity," he explained.

Mollendorf reported that 308 faculty members out of 1,200 responded to the survey-150 of which contributed written comments-the results of which he said he hoped "would generate light, not heat" with the administration. A detailed presentation of the results is slated for the May 8 meeting of the full Faculty Senate, and results will be posted on the senate's Web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/governance/fac-sen/.

Finally, the FSEC passed an amended motion recommending to the Bylaws Committee that it adopt a faculty-distribution plan for the senate that would allow for 100 senators, with only the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences subject to a 25-percent cap on its representation.