dumontjanks

The University of Nebraska is a public research university with four primary campuses: UNK in Kearney, UNL in Lincoln, and UNMC (the medical center) and UNO in Omaha. The university has approximately 26,000,000 gross square feet of space across these campuses. This represents a significant portion of both its and the state’s balance sheet. The state has a strong history of supporting these assets: in 1998 the legislature enacted LB1100 which established significant funding to address the university’s deferred maintenance needs, then continued and increased this support in 2006 through LB605. Given ever shrinking resource bases, the next legislative cycle will be critical in continuing this tradition. It is imperative the university makes the case for continued investment in the physical plant, both for new construction and renovations. We worked with the university to formulate a comprehensive, integrated methodology that is data-driven, responsive to strategic imperatives, and generative of value in the broadest sense. This will include a capital renewal model with updated building condition assessments, suitability analyses to determine the appropriateness of selected elements of each campus’ portfolio to support evolving mission needs, key space utilization metrics to determine the efficiency of existing space, a prioritization framework for individual campuses to consider their specific project lists, and on-going data management strategies to effectively inform future decision making. The university is now implementing the methodology in a second study phase.