UNIVERSITY OF OREGON SPACE UTILIZATION AND CLASSIFICATION MANUAL: CODING SPACE
[Revised 03/23/2021]
PURPOSE OF THE DATABASE AND USES OF THE DATA
Space is one of the university’s valuable resources. Information about university-owned and -occupied building spaces is maintained in UO Spaces, a live, web-based space management database created by University of Oregon personnel. UO Spaces is based on the national Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory and Classification system1 used by most major American universities. This system allows us to provide consistent data to Federal and other agencies and to conduct and participate in benchmarking studies with our peer institutions.
The space database serves many functions. Most significantly, it helps the university meet Federal requirements related to accurate tracking of all space under the university's control. It is an essential component in formulating the university's Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Cost rate.
Space management, academic planning, and capital projections are additional activities supported by UO Spaces. For this reason, accuracy and timeliness of the live data is essential. Data analyses assess whether sufficient facilities exist in such categories as classrooms, research labs, residence halls, and administrative support to fulfill the university’s mission. They are used in decision-making on how to maximize the use of existing space and to plan for future needs by answering questions about how much space is available, what kind of space it is, to whom it is assigned, and how efficiently it is being used.
The data also may be used by the schools and colleges, as well as individual units, to maintain allocation and utilization data on their own spaces for internal decision making.
Additional potential for the UO Spaces application lies in its ability to link to other existing databases such as operations and maintenance, equipment, land/property, and indirect cost recovery systems, providing a conjunction with financial, academic, human resources, and other programmatic data.
1 Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual (FICM): 2006 Edition. National Center for Education Statistics. May 2006.
Questions? Contact Data Administrator, Campus Planning, at http://uospaces@uoregon.edu
Space Data Components
UO Spaces contains elements that describe the current utilization of all university-owned, leased, or otherwise occupied spaces. Either individually or in combination, these elements allow for analysis and reporting on many levels as described above.
The principal space utilization elements:
Space Type
Related Service
Space Function, or Functional Use
Stations
Occupant and Employee Information
Percentage of Effort (“POE”)
Principal Investigator
Area (net square feet)
These various elements, their descriptions, and purposes are described individually below.
SPACE TYPE
All spaces are coded into one of ten comprehensive “Space Type Categories.” Within each category are several descriptive codes (“Type Codes”) that specify how a space is used (e.g., faculty office, class lab, conference room).
The comprehensive Type Categories are:
000 – Non-Assignable Areas
100 – Classroom Facilities
200 – Laboratory Facilities
300 – Office Facilities
400 – Study Facilities (generally UO Libraries)
500 – Special Use Facilities
600 – General Use Facilities
700 – Support Facilities
800 – Health Care Facilities
900 – Residential Facilities
Note:
Type Code “000” should not be confused with Type Category 000 – Non-Assignable Areas.
Type Code “000” in the UO Spaces Type Code field indicates that the departmental user should provide a current Type Code.
RELATED SERVICE
A Related Service Code indicates a room or area that supports another space and further defines a Type Code; it is used with a Type Code that ends with “9” (319, 259, 929, etc.; see end of Type Code List below). For example, a workroom can support or be associated with a number of different Type Categories. If it supports a non-class lab, then the Type Code is “Non-Class Lab Support (259)” and the Related Service Code is “Workroom (97)”; if it supports an office complex, the Type Code is “Office Support (319)” and the Related Service Code is “Workroom (97)”.
Note 1:
Three-digit codes 010 through 049 normally are used in the “Type Code” field; they are associated with non-assignable spaces, so are not likely to be used by departments.
Two-digit codes 50 through 99 indicate support facilities or service areas and can be used only as Related Service Codes.
Codes 101 through 999 generally are used as Type Codes (see Note 2 below).
Note 2:
Type Codes can sometimes be used as Related Service Codes if it is considered important to retain a specific Type Category (e.g., “900 – Residential Facilities”).
For instance, a study room in the Knight Library would use Type Code “Study Room (412)”. However, if the study room is exclusively associated with a residence hall (Type Category “900 – Residential Facilities”), then the Type Code would be “Residence Hall Facilities Support (929)” and the Related Service Code would be “Study (412).”)
[Refer to Appendix A for alphabetic lists and detailed definitions for Type and Related Service Codes. In the website version of UO Spaces, this is a link to https://spaces.uoregon.edu/usermanual/type-and-related-service-codes]
CUSTOM TYPE INFORMATION
Editors can type directly into this field in the Edit form. The field is for brief notes only. For longer notes or additional information, use the “Add note” function in the Edit form.
Following are appropriate uses for the Custom Type Information field:
[1] to create an “alias” by identifying a space that carries an official name of recognition such as “Paul Olum Atrium” in Willamette Hall, or “Hayden Gallery” in Lawrence Hall;
[2] to identify spaces with unusual or special descriptions such as “Graduate Student Hearth”;
[3] to identify a specific allocation, especially in research areas, such as “Smith Lab”;
[4] to provide a brief note, such as the name of a new hire not yet in Banner; or to identify a special condition, such as “Held for xxx, on sabbatical fall 2019”; and
[5] to describe spaces that have no appropriate Type Code, requiring the “code of last resort”—“Other Special Use (593)”—for example, a Fingerprinting Room, or Roof Access. With the use of “Other Special Use (593),” you must describe the use in the Custom Type Information field.
FUNCTIONAL USE CODES
(also Function Codes)
Function Codes are two-digit numbers that classify allocated space across functional categories (e.g., instruction, research, public service, department administration, et al.) and identify a program or function within the university. Identification of the function may be based on various attributes, including, but not limited to, activity, budgetary support, type of space, departmental association, division of effort, or a combination of these.
Function Codes are used primarily to link space allocations to financial data or to institutional missions (e.g., the proportion of space used for sponsored research) or to analyze and compare space allocations across institutions according to commonly used functional categories. Function Codes rarely change unless, for example, a funding source changes (e.g., from department research to sponsored research) or a functional activity changes (e.g., from instructional support to department administration).
The university’s classification system uses categories identified by about thirty Function Codes. These can be crosswalked with the Federal Office of Management and Budget’s Cost Pools for establishing the university’s “Facilities and Administrative Cost Rate” (indirect cost).
[See Appendix B for Functional Use Code list and detailed definitions. In the website version of UO Spaces, this is a link to https://spaces.uoregon.edu/usermanual/functional-use-codes]
STATIONS
“Stations” are counted based on the space Type. For offices individual work station are counted (not the number of occupants). For example, if two work stations are shared by six students, the “Stations” field would show “2”; the “Occupant” field would contain names of six student employees.
For conference rooms, classrooms, seminar rooms, etc., it is the number of seats or people that can occupy the space, considering room arrangements, UO classroom standards, or fire/life safety capacities assigned by Environmental Health and Safety. Departments with departmentally controlled classrooms should contact EH&S to obtain official room capacities.
Note:
When prorating rooms (see below “Prorating Spaces”) that have stations associated with them, do not duplicate the number of stations by listing the same stations in each prorate. If the same person or people are in both prorates (i.e., the space is prorated because of multiple types, functions, or unit allocations), show the station(s) in one prorate only. However, if different people occupy the prorates and have their own stations, you can list the stations associated with each prorate.
For example,
Graduate student office with 3 work stations, 2 Function Codes, and 3 graduate employees (2 working on sponsored research and 1 teaching):
Prorate 1 is Function Code “Sponsored Research (41)”: 2 Graduate Employees (research) / (2 stations)
Prorate 2 is Function Code “Instructional Support (05)”: 1 Graduate Employee (teaching) / (1 station)
Faculty office with 1 work station, 2 Function Codes (split research and teaching), and 1 employee:
Prorate 1 is Function Code “Sponsored Research (41)”: Professor Mel Jones / (1 station)
Prorate 2 is Function Code “Instructional Support (05)”: Professor Mel Jones / (0 stations}
OCCUPANT and EMPLOYEE INFORMATION
Occupants assigned to offices, laboratories, processing rooms, or like spaces are selected from the HRIS-linked database of all UO employees. When an Occupant’s name is selected, specific employee information will be populated automatically. Data includes the Occupant’s UO ID, Home Organization Code, Employee Type and Class, Rank, Job(s), Position Description(s), and Appointment Percent
Note:
If an office has no occupant (such as during an active search), please use the check-box “Pending occupant?” in the Edit form to indicate that the vacancy will be filled soon, and use either the “Custom Type Information” field or the “Add note” function in the Edit form to indicate the anticipated fill date or to provide other relevant information.
EMPLOYEE CODES:
The following employee codes indicate the prevalent appointment type within a space; only one of these can be selected for the “Prevalent appointment type” field. For example, if graduate employees and undergraduate employees share an office and the total FTE for graduate employees exceeds that of the undergraduates, you would use G (rather than S) as the Prevalent Appointment Type.
A - Academic (professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor)
C - Classified
E - Emeritus
G - Graduate employee
OA - Officer of Administration (ranked and non-ranked)
R - Research assistant, research associate, post-doctoral fellow (employed)
S - Student
T - Trainee or fellow
M - Temporary employee
U - Unsupported graduate/undergraduate student, volunteer, or other
PERCENT OF EFFORT (“POE”)
Briefly, this term is used by granting agencies to show the amount of effort spent on a particular activity (Function Code) in a particular room during a specified reporting period (to be determined by university processes and requirements). Work dedicated to an activity within a room is represented by a percentage (“Percent of Effort” or “POE”), with the total activities within a room equaling 100%. In this sense, the percentage is dependent on human activities associated with the space.
However, in UO Spaces every space in the inventory must have a POE attached to it—regardless of whether there is an occupant—since this field determines how the application computes and displays the total square footage. Most rooms or spaces have only one functional activity in them and will have only one POE (100%). Only those rooms prorated because of multiple types, functions, or units will have multiple POEs.
[Refer to Appendix C for detailed information on figuring Percent of Effort for research spaces. In the website version of UO Spaces, this is a link to https://spaces.uoregon.edu/usermanual/percent-effort]
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
This field, required for spaces with Function Codes “Sponsored Research (41)”, “University Research (42)”, or “Sponsored Public Service (61)” contains the name(s) of the individual(s) responsible for the research either conducted in the space (non-class lab, procedure room, etc.) or supported by the space (instrument/equipment room, environmental control room, etc.).
This information is critical to the F&A process. The Principal Investigator field also is central to lab planning for new buildings, renovations, relocations, start-up costs, and space-to-grant ratios.
Note:
At the discretion of each research center or institute, this field can be used to identify an assignment to a specific researcher or principal investigator even though the space is used for non-sponsored research activities (i.e., department research or instructional support).
AREA
This field is populated automatically by linking to the university’s GIS mapping system maintained by Campus GIS and Mapping.
The database contains different square footage categories needed for space management and analysis of building efficiency. The “Area” displayed in the departmental inventories is based on “Net Square Footage” (NSF), which is the measurement of the floor space defined by the inner edge of a room’s walls.
Net square footage is divided into “Assignable” and “Non-Assignable” areas. “Assignable” square feet (ASF) generally are those that are available for programmatic or departmental use—offices, classrooms, labs, and affiliated spaces, etc. “Non-Assignable” square feet should not appear on your inventory; they are spaces associated with three non-assignable categories: building service (janitorial closets and restrooms), mechanical rooms, and circulation (halls, stairs, elevators, lobbies, etc.). These spaces, and no others, carry Function Codes “Building Ops – O&M (19)” or “Non-Assignable (91).”
Also available in the database, is the “Gross Square Footage” (GSF) of each building.
Gross Square Footage of a building is the total area of all floors measured from the outside edge of the building's exterior walls, excluding spaces that are not enclosed (e.g., covered or uncovered exterior terraces, porches, interior courtyards, and walkways). GSF includes enclosed rooftop mechanical penthouse spaces, interior vertical chases, and transportation shafts (e.g., an elevator shaft).
These GSF figures, which appear in the building summaries, are essential for meeting the maximum-build and density limits of the university’s Campus Plan and Biennial Capacity Plan. GSF figures are also used to calculate eligibility for State capital improvement funds, define operations and maintenance needs, and respond to numerous data requests.
END OF SPACE DATA COMPONENTS