Ann K. Newman: What Keeps a Planner Up at Night

Ann K. Newman, who was April’s Buildings & Grounds guest blogger, is head of the planning group at Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott. She is a psychologist by training.

Ann K. Newman

Over the past four years I have visited or worked at several dozen colleges and universities across the country. I can’t think of any one of them, public or private, large or small, brand-name or obscure, that does not have deferred maintenance (and most times, a lot of it). There are dorms that haven’t been updated in 40 to 50 years; classrooms that are crowded, too hot or cold, and noisy; and teaching labs that are dangerously outdated.

Even before the current economic crisis, there wasn’t enough money to fix all of this. What will we who work for, or at, higher-education institutions do to ensure that our campuses are clean, healthy, safe environments that allow the highest levels of learning and teaching, development, community, research, and scholarship?

I don’t have all the answers. But here are some: Stop the age-old practice of building new buildings while ignoring the existing ones. Don’t build without insuring that the institution has set aside money for the future maintenance, operations, and upgrades of what you’re about to put up. Think very carefully before you build at all.

What keeps you up at night? —Ann K. Newman