VACRAO Discussion Area

I understand there is a number, set by the state, which determines at what point a room/building is considered to be used to its maximum potential. That is, if a room/building is being occupied 80%, 85%, 90% (some set percentage) it is time to add rooms or build buildings. Has anyone heard of this number? We are in Virginia (of course), but I am interested in any state or even an individual institution’s percent capacity.

Thank you for your help,
Dawn Congleton
Hampden-Sydney College

Rebecca:
There’s a report from May 2004 on the SCHEV web page that mentions desired utilization rates of 60% of capacity for 40 hours per week for classrooms and 80% of capacity for 24 hours per week for laboratory space.  I don’t know if or how any of those rates are used by the state in evaluating requests for building new space (heaven knows we keep building here at UVa), but they look like useful guidelines.
http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/2004SpaceUtilizationComparisonReport.pdf
--Robert