CM-54 Campus Research Space Policy for all Schools

May 20, 2004

Overview

1. Research space will be assigned within a school to specific departments, centers, or programs with active research programs. The department heads, deans for research, or center or program directors will be responsible for the use of the space and accountable to their respective dean who has ultimate authority over the space. The dean will provide counsel to the department heads, deans for research, and center and program directors and arbitrate on conflicts related to use of space.
2. The amount of research space assigned to a department or center will “flex” depending on the overall productivity of the unit and commitments that are made by the department or school in the context of the faculty recruitment or program commitments.
3. Each school will establish metric benchmarks or standards to guide assignment of space for new recruitments and development of programs and to allow for reallocation of space.
4. Each school will form a space committee that advises the dean on research space utilization; the committee will review annual productivity measurements and will make recommendations to the dean regarding the assignment and reallocation of space and will oversee the annual assessment of research space productivity at the level of department or center. The strength of each school policy will be validated by thoughtful research space adjustments based on reliable data and reasonable recommendations.
5. All recommendations on research space assignments made to the dean by the school’s space committee will consider strategic research plans at the level of the department, center, program and school.
6. An annual analysis of research space productivity will be done for all units assigned research space using “closed” year-end institutional expenditure ledgers. The space analysis will include MTDC/sq ft, TC/sq ft, and IC/sq ft and other statistics including grant submission rates; space will be classified in accordance with federally-defined categories (A-21 survey lexicon). Patient drug studies will be excluded from this analysis, as will funds obtained through state consortia agencies or organizations.

Implementation

1. MTDC/sq ft and TC/sq ft will be the primary institutional indicators of research space productivity, with each school establishing critical values (minimal performance metric standards). Use of rolling 3-year averages in the evaluation process will be encouraged. Each school will determine who will collect and report these data to the Dean and Space Committee (i.e., business manager, financial officer, etc.)
2. The dean of each school and the respective school research space committee may choose to define specific formulaic criteria for making space adjustments for high achieving and also consistently unproductive units. Specific criteria may be established, within a research unit and within a school that consider:
   • Specific minimal benchmark school standards for MTDC/sq ft and TC/sq ft.
   • Acquisition (or maintenance) of federally-funded research grants.
   • Senior investigator status on extramurally funded projects.
   • Grant submission history.
   • Manuscripts submission history.
3. For the purposes of research space utilization only, accountability of research space productivity will be considered to be within a research unit (departmental or center) if its research funding is expended within that unit’s space. For example, if an investigator occupies space considered to lie within a center, even if the department administers the grant funding for that space, the productivity metrics will be calculated for the center space.
4. Expectations for research productivity and initial space assignments for new faculty will be defined in the letters of offer, recognizing that there is inherent start-up or down-time associated with relocation.
5. Each school will establish minimal standards for retention of research space; specifics may set levels for annual research expenditures, grant submission or significant participation in scientific publications over a defined period of time. If these minimal criteria are not satisfied, it is the responsibility of the department head/dean for research/center or program director to reassign this space to another faculty member within the department (if justified by its metrics) or return the space to the dean for reallocation. In cases where individuals are located in center space, decisions on space adjustments will be made jointly with the administering department and the center.
6. Vacated research space should be thoroughly cleaned and prepared for reassignment to another investigator or unit; old equipment should be surplused. Space should be presentable for recruitment purposes.
7. Tracking of space adjustments and an annual report on research space utilization will be submitted by each dean to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Definitions (as the abbreviations appear in the text):

1. MTDC: Modified Total Direct Cost, includes all total costs except equipment and other minor incidentals.
2. TC: Total Cost, includes all direct costs, including exclusions for MTDC, and indirect cost recovery.
3. Sq ft: square feet.
4. IC: Indirect Cost.