Making or exceeding your enrollment goal is a good thing, right? Well, maybe…
Colleges and universities, especially private institutions, have continued to increase their offering of discount rates to help drive enrollment. This means that, even though enrollment goals have been met, there is less overall revenue to meet rising facility maintenance and operation costs. Tuition driven institutions are especially susceptible to this unintended consequence. One way to help mitigate this adverse effect is to reduce operating costs.
Benchmarking your institution against peer institutions is a good starting point. This can be done on a building by building basis (preferred) or on a campus level. This process helps an institution to create a priority list of areas of improvement. From this list, individual buildings and/or systems can be evaluated both locally and in the context of the entire campus. There are often operational, functional and capital changes that can result in reduced operating expenses.
Barton Education has completed many projects ranging from commissioning and energy audits to full scale renovations in an effort to help owners reduce their operating expenses, improve occupant comfort and create spaces that support the core mission: educating students. If you would like more information on how Barton Education can help your institution, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Rader, PE at msr@ba-inc.com or (717) 845-7654.