Brock University Capital Submission to MTCU (September 5, 2008-Dr. J. Miller) Executive Summary

Transcription

1 Brock University Capital Submission to MTCU (September 5, 2008-Dr. J. Miller) Capital Projects and Facilities Committee September 11, 2008 TOPIC: CAPITAL SUBMISSION TO MTCU Attachment #1 Executive Summary In the period to (the last year for which MTCU data is available) Brock grew by 83.5% vs a system average of 50.0%. Only Nipissing (106.5%) had a higher rate of growth. Thus despite BUILD and SUPERBUILD funding for 2 of the 4 projects that we have brought on stream in this period we have been fighting a losing battle in trying to keep up with our space needs, especially as graduate programs and research have grown exponentially in this time frame. Thus Brock is the most under-spaced of the Ontario Universities of any significant size, with only 5.7 NASMs/FTE ( data). The only institutions apparently worse off than Brock are Nipissing (where the deficit is in non-teaching and research categories), with Nipising being a third our size in terms of FTEs; and Toronto Scarborough with 5.0 NASMs/FTE, an institution half our size. It has a very different mix of graduate students and research, with many of these functions being located on the St. George Campus. If we look at Nipissing with a higher growth rate than Brock then Nipissing s NASMs/FTE drops from 5.7 in to 4.5 in Brock over the same time period dropped from 6.8 to 5.7. The necessity for these new buildings is clearly demonstrated when we look at our Table 5 Data in the COU Space Survey, where we are at 52.9 %I/G (total formula area), vs the System at 72.0%, and if we look at the categories of Reseach/Teaching/Academic Support we are at 48.7% vs the system at Our I/G in both categories has declined in the last 3 years from 58.8 and 55.4%, a loss of 5.9 and.7% in absolute terms and 11.2 and 15.8% in relative terms, this despite three new buildings. Classroom space (56.1%I/G), Class labs (29.7%I/G) Research space (50.8%I/G) offices (54.1%I/G) and Library & Campus Study Space (43.3%I/G) where most of our major deficits are to be found. In all of the above categories we are ~ 20-30% below the provincial average. If we compare Brock with institutions with worse NASMs/FTE we find that the overall %I/Gs in were Brock 52.9, Nipissing 44.9 and Toronto Scarborough If we look at only academic space the corresponding %I/G numbers are Brock 48.7, Nipissing 49.2, and Toronto Scarborough Thus irrespective of the NASMs/FTE, taken as an institution with both undergraduate and graduate students, and with growing research endeavors, we find ourselves at the bottom for academic space amongst the Ontario Universities, especially using the COU I/G numbers for academic space. Thus among institutions in the system long enough to have data over a period of years, Brock is the worst off for space in the Research/Teaching/Academic support area. Only a major influx of money from the Long-term Capital Planning Process can help to alleviate the disadvantage that our students and staff find themselves in. We have shown our projects early in the cycle since new buildings must go up before old vacated space can be renovated for new uses, essential to handle our enrolment growth, in particular in the area of Graduate Studies. 1 The system data in the draft Table 5 of the 07-8 report are based on the Sept. 3 rd draft numbers.

2 All our projects listed below meet most or all of the applicable priorities proposed by the Ministry for the Long-term capital planning process (memo of June 25 th, 2008): a. Capacity expansion to meet the needs of students in high growth regions (Metro Toronto needs is certainly part of our plans. -- We currently draw over 31-2% of our students from the 905 area). High demand programs including future expansion of graduate programs are targets of the proposed buildings. b. The capacity expansion proposed has clear links to economic growth in Ontario. c. We are building on our strengths. d. We have traditionally been an institution whose many students were the first in their family to go to University. We have major efforts underway to make the campus more accessible to those with disabilities. Starting in the 70s we pioneered wheelchair accessible laboratories and wheelchairs designed to access commercial equipment that is too high for conventional wheelchairs. We also pioneered the University teaching of Haudenososaunee languages and the training of aboriginal teachers in particular of their native dialects, and on their reserves. e. The new buildings will be energy efficient (LEED). These, along with the proposed major renovations project, will address our serious space deficit, the worst in the Province for academic space. We will renovate old spaces vacated to bring them up to modern standards for teaching and research. Some of these modifications will also address deferred maintenance problems. f. We will increase opportunities for part-time and adult education, including distance and e-learning opportunities through new and modern classrooms, studios and labs and additional facilities for both IT and the Center for Teaching and Learning. g. We will further develop cross-sector or intra-sector partnerships for postsecondary education as we have done with Niagara, Mohawk and Loyalist Colleges. h. NA i. Funding mechanisms are being explored: j. Positive community, regional, economic and environmental impacts are part of our expectations for the new spaces and several of our projects have direct community involvement. k. We will demonstrate links to the provincial growth plan. All new construction falls into the eligible categories, with the construction of new buildings, (essential to alleviate our enormous space crunch) and the renovations and upgrading of the space vacated by moves to new construction: 1. They are growth projects which will permit increased enrolment in high demand areas with the construction of classrooms, studios, labs and offices, and account for increased graduate enrolment as we move to Comprehensive status. 2. They address existing demonstrable shortfalls in space as exemplified by the COU 2007 Space Survey as noted above.) 3. The renewal projects are designed to upgrade vacated space to modern standards, so as to increase our ability to apply modern pedagogy (and make distance education more feasible) and improve efficiency, and to provide growth for faculty and staff needed to accommodate the increased enrolment. In particular in Applied Health Sciences an area of major growth, this is achieved by moving Social Science departments out of a building shared with AHS into new spaces to free up contiguous space for the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences to expand into.

3 Our growth model will increase our FTEs by 14.4%, i.e. and increase of 2,038 FTEs above our Nov ,118 FTEs as reported in the COU triennial space survey, using these FTEs to be consistent with the space information from the survey. The following projects show dates for design and construction, with only the Welch Hall Addition and the 1 st Phase of the Norman Road project having known costs. Costs of other projects are in 2008 dollars and include construction and soft costs, but are based on estimates from current construction since these projects are not yet at schematic design stage that would permit approximate costing. Dates given below are approximate and would depend on funding. List of Proposed Projects: (listed in Priority categories) Highest Priority for increasing enrolment and improving program quality Norman Road Building(s): (2008-9, ) Downtown School of Fine and Performing Arts: ( ) Faculty of Business ( ) Highest Priority for energy efficiency and future building cost savings Second Central Utilities Building/Co-Gen Plant: ( ) High Priority for maximum utilization of older space and unifying Faculties Major Modernization and Upgrades to old space vacated by units moving to new buildings: ( ) Welch Hall Addition and Renovations: (2007-9) List of Proposed Projects: (listed in Chronological order) 1. Welch Hall Addition and Renovations: (2007-9) 2. Norman Road Building(s): (2008-9, ) 3. Second Central Utilities Building/Co-Gen Plant: ( ) 4. Faculty of Business ( ) 5. Downtown School of Fine and Performing Arts: ( ) 6. Major Modernization and Upgrades to old space vacated by units moving to new buildings: ( )

4 The proposed funding for these projects is as follows: Project Province of Ontario Brock University Private Sector 1. Welch Hall 50% 50%* 2. Norman Road 50% 50%* 3. 2 nd CUB 100%# 4. SFPA 50% 50%** 5. Renovations 100%# 6. Faculty of Business 50% 50%** * Money in hand. # These projects do not lend themselves to Private Sector fund raising. ** under active negotiation Attached is a brief description of each of the projects, and the completed template forms for each of the 6 projects. Included with this summary are the following University Planning documents. Brock Cover letter (A Vision for the Future) and Reports on Long Range Planning: and Brock University Campus Plan (2003): Campus%20Plan.pdf Facility Needs and Priorities Study (2006): Facility%20Needs%20and%20Priority%20Study.pdf Utilities Master Plan (2007): Utilities%20Master%20Plan%20Section%201-6.pdf SHAPING OUR FUTURE: A Guide to the Planning, Design and Architecture of the Natural and Built Environments (2007): Shaping%20our%20Future.pdf Brock 2014: knowledge, engagement, transformation. Co-Gen summary and business plan: FILES/BU%20CUB%20Cogen%20BP.pdf Short Project Descriptions, from the Executive Summaries: (Prices are total project costs in 2008 dollars, with the Provincial request being shown in bold.) listed in approximate chronological order Welch Hall Addition and Renovations: ( ) ~$10,110,000. The Welch Hall addition provides for office space to consolidate the Faculty of Education in one building on campus, provides for faculty growth for additional preservice and graduate students and provides space for faculty and graduate students research which was not available in the original St. Catharines Teacher s College built by the Ministry nearly 40 years ago. The renovations of the existing building will provide for modern laboratories for the teaching of science and music, and in particular additional space for graduate students.

5 Norman Road Buildings Humanities Consolidation: ( ) ~$28,443,000. The Norman Road project will allow for the consolidation of the Humanities Faculty on our East Campus location, replacing substandard and far too small accommodations for the Classics, Modern Languages and Literatures, and Applied Linguistics departments, along with the office of the Dean of Humanities.. It will respond to the establishment of graduate programs in most of the Humanities departments and provide a significant increase in the University s inventory of seminar rooms, the most critical teaching space shortage that we have. (Our classroom space is only 56.1% of COU entitlement.) Stage 3 will provide for more middle-sized classrooms, which will be used primarily for the Humanities departments and Nursing which is being relocated to the East Campus. Modern classrooms and lecture theatres will address the problems of e-learning in 30 year old classrooms, with new classrooms meeting all the current pedagogical requirements. These new spaces will permit, the relocations of existing programs in Nursing, Tourism and the Environment and the Graduate Program in Applied Disabilities from rented buildings whose leases are expiring and will not be renewed, and which are not accessible to the physically disabled. These programs will move into space vacated by the move of Humanities and the Intensive English Language programs into Norman Road. All our International student initiatives and services will be integrated in these buildings along with our Intensive English Language Programs. School of Fine and Performing Arts jointly with the St. Catharines/Niagara Performing Arts Center in downtown St. Catharines: ( ) ~$35,000,000. The space occupied by the School of Fine and Performing arts is inadequate in that most of it is in ill adapted ex-classroom space (inadequate ceiling height, support space, soundproofing etc), rather than purpose built for the functions needed. The Visual Arts space, though newer, is also far too small, such that we have to have studios in building spread over downtown St. Catharines as well as the SFPA space on campus. Dramatic Arts is forced to have rehearsals in corridors at night after the evening classes are over at 10 PM. This proposal would involve brown fields development and conversion of a heritage industrial building in downtown St. Catharines as part of the School to be built in conjunction with the St. Catharines/Niagara Performing Arts Center. The latter would subsume the Brock Center for the Arts. This also fits with Provincial plans for downtown revitalization and downtown /St. Catharines as the site of regional public buildings. This location would also be close to the joint project involving computer gaming between the Province, Brock, Niagara College and the industry and which is integrally tied to the program in Visual Arts and the Center for Digital Humanities. In addition the School is intimately involved with the tourism and arts tourism particularly in the Niagara Peninsula and will be on the Wine Route. This facility will meet the undergraduate and future graduate student growth needs of the SFPA, address our gross shortcomings in classroom space (56.1% of entitlement and class labs/studios at 29.7%, University wide and far worse in the SFPA departments). Modern classrooms and lecture theatres will address the problems of e-learning in 30 year old classrooms, with new classrooms meeting all the current pedagogical requirements.

6 Faculty of Business: ( ) ~9,000 NASM $37,000,000 in 2008 dollars including renovations of 1800 NASM of vacated space. Having a dedicated Faculty of Business building would enable Brock to continue its growth as a comprehensive institution of choice. Additional space would enable the Faculty of Business to attract more high quality students from the Greater Toronto Area, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level, a new building would enable us, as an institution, to preserve and enhance the quality of undergraduate programs by attracting a diverse student body to our strong programs. The Faculty of Business offers undergraduate programs in business administration and a specialized accounting degree. At the graduate level, we want to be able to expand our programs consistent with Brock s 2014 Academic plan. We hope to introduce a Ph.D. program to build on our research strengths. However, currently, we do not have the facilities to house additional students or faculty. Currently over 40% of our students, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, participate in co-op programs. Over 80% of the job placements for these students are in the Greater Toronto Area with this strong link to the 905 belt, we offer students the opportunity to study in a safe, focused environment while taking advantage of the important business opportunities in Toronto. The space vacated by Business will be renovated to house Sociology next the principal Social Sciences Research labs in the Lifespan Development Center, and the Registrar s Office currently housed in an area that was barely adequate when designed 28 years ago for the number of students we then had. Second Central Utilities Building with Facilities Management support shops and offices. $29,557,000. ( ) When the Decew Campus opened in there was a complete set of tunnels to link the first and future buildings to a Central Utilities Building (CUB) which provided chilled water and later hot water for heating to the whole campus. By 2002, despite enlargements and the addition of a co-gen plant, the CUB and the hot and chilled water distribution system was maxed out. In fact we were short about 25% cooling capacity in the hottest part of the summer. Two new buildings have had to be designed with their own stand-alone HVAC systems, though the most recent building can be switched to central supply with the internal unit becoming an emergency standby system. Our Utilities Master Plan (2007) strongly recommends the addition of a second CUB to provide similar services to new buildings on campus and to take some of the load off the existing plant. Since the Niagara Health and Biosciences Research Center (NHBRC, with $33 Million in Provincial funding already on hand) is scheduled for completion in 2012, it is essential that the new CUB be on line in time to serve that building. This and the Faculty of Business building would be the first of the new buildings to be served from the new CUB and are essential to our projected growth. (The Norman Road project is on our East Campus and is not serviceable from the West Campus.)

7 Major Upgrading of (A) MacKenzie Chown Complex and The Walker Complex after completion of NHBRC, ; and (B) Basement of Schmon Tower and Thistle after SFPA moves (2012-4): ( ) (A) ~11,400NASM (Chown) and (Walker Complex) = $22,800,000., (B) ~1,450 NASM (basement of Tower and Thistle) $3,000,000. With the move of much of the Health and Biosciences research to the new NHBRC, the year old labs in the MacKenzie Chown complex are due for major renewal to bring both the teaching and research labs up to modern standards and to convert some former research labs to teaching labs. As part of this major upgrade Psychology sleep labs and Geography labs will also be upgraded. Similarly the NHBRC will free up office space for the Health Sciences departments in South Academic leaving the unsatisfactory interior office area of the Walker complex to be upgraded and turned into dry labs, graduate student space, and much needed meeting rooms. This will permit growth in enrolment in the critical Health and Biosciences areas. These and related moves also provide for major growth in the Social Sciences. The service facilities (Machine, electronics and glassblowing shops and Science Stores) in the MC Complex will continue to serve the new NHBRC and must be upgraded accordingly. Units not directly associated with the NHBRC will benefit as vacated space is renovated and reassigned to them. (Our teaching labs/studios are only 29.7% of entitlement). Modern classrooms and lecture theatres will address the problems of e-learning in 30 year old classrooms, with new classrooms meeting all the current pedagogical requirements. Some old research labs will be converted to teaching labs to help alleviate the shortage of space in this category. The basement of the Tower and Thistle vacated by the School of Fine and Performing Arts will be converted to classrooms as originally designed and Student Services space.