Buildings consume approximately 40 percent of the energy used in the U.S., and efficiency is widely recognized to be the most effective means for containing demand and reducing use. Institutions of higher education make up a significant proportion of building area and annual energy and facility-related costs in the United States. The national…

There is good reason to look at energy and sustainability as "the" capital investment--savings that can be achieved through energy conservation and other sustainability measures can help offset increasing deferred maintenance and capital renewal costs. The APPA Energy and Sustainability Assessment Tool (ESAT) provides a dynamic database…

CAUBO--the Canadian Association of University Business Officers--is a volunteer-driven organization that represents the administrative function of virtually all Canadian universities (CAUBO is the Canadian counterpart to NACUBO in the United States). Member committees provide direction and subject matter expertise, with each committee typically…

The single-site exemplar study presents an in-depth account of the presidential leadership of Charles M. Vest of MIT--the second longest presidency in the Institute's history--and his leadership team's journey between 1990 and 2004 into campus architectural changes that involved over a billion dollars, added a quarter of floor space to MIT's…

The "Nevada K-12 & School Choice Survey" project, commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by Braun Research, Inc. (BRI), measures Nevada registered voters' familiarity and views on a range of K-12 education topics and school choice reforms. The author and his colleagues report response levels and…

This article introduces a theoretical framework for studying school improvement processes such as making school environments safer. Using concepts from spatial theory, in which distinctions between mental, social and physical space are applied makes for a multidimensional analysis of processes of change. In a multilevel case study, these were…

This study, using a practical action research design, examined the future of St. Mary School, a Catholic elementary school in southern Kentucky. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire consisting of 19 close-ended items and one open-ended item in order to elicit the attitudes and perceptions of the stakeholders (educational professionals,…

For several years, schools and universities have been battered by a sputtering economy that on many campuses has brought about slashed budgets, curtailed programs, shuttered facilities and terminated employees. But throughout the gloomy financial conditions, one of the bright spots for education institutions is the continued growing embrace of…

Far from the limelight of LEED, Energy Star or Green Globes certifications are the energy codes developed and updated by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the International Code Council (ICC) through the support of the Department of Energy (DOE) as minimum guidelines for building envelope,…

Renovating, expanding or building new libraries today is a challenge on several levels. Libraries in general are faced with image issues, such as the assumption that a library building exists only to house print material followed by the equally erroneous assumption that everything is now available online, thus rendering a physical building…

Facility managers everywhere are tasked with improving energy efficiency to control costs. Those strides cannot be achieved at the expense of system performance and reliability, or the comfort of the people within those properties. There are few places where this is truer than in schools and universities. K-12 schools and university lecture spaces…

The Service Plan outlines the work the Ministry of Education will continue to undertake to modernize education in British Columbia (B.C.) and achieve its vision. The Ministry's work on that transformation focuses on two broad priority areas: (1) Transforming how they support and enable better learning outcomes for B.C. children; and (2)…

This report, and accompanying tables present the findings of the 16th Annual Survey of College Construction prepared for "College Planning & Management" magazine. Representatives of Market Data Retrieval sent survey forms and made follow-up telephone calls to every college in the U.S. seeking information on their construction…

Early federal court decisions in school desegregation placed little emphasis on public school facilities. Those early decisions focused primarily on requiring black and white students to attend the same schools and requiring the integration of teachers. What does the literature say about the relationship between student achievement and educational…

Jane L. Beyer Westerhold knows no boundaries. As superintendent of the Des Plaines (Ill.) Community Consolidated School District 62 in suburban Chicago, Westerhold has led a three-year master plan with a $109 million facilities upgrade, narrowed the achievement gap between low-income and other students, and kept a AA+ bond rating--the highest…