UW School of Nursing Space Allocation Policies

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to describe the role of different School of Nursing units with respect to allocating, maintaining and planning for office, research, and other space both inside the Health Sciences Building (HSB) and off-campus.  The document includes statements that may be considered policies, guidelines, or a combination of the two.

Space Planning and Allocation

1. For purposes of space planning and allocation, the space assigned to the School of Nursing is divided into seven operating units (hereinafter referred to as ‘units’).  These units include the Office of the Dean, the Academic Services Office, the Office for Nursing Research, Continuing Nursing Education, the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems, the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, and the Department of Family and Child Nursing.
2. The Deans and Chairs committee is the group that allocates space to units and resolves disputes.
3. The dean, department chairs, and associate deans are the allocators of space within their respective units.  Each has control of all their respective assigned space and manages and funds all assignments, remodeling, and upgrading of that space. 
4. Reallocations of space within units lie within the unit head’s authority and responsibility.  The Deans and Chairs committee must approve reallocations of space between units.  The School of Nursing administrator will place reallocations between units on the committee’s agenda for their approval following notification by an affected unit.
5. The School of Nursing administrator will conduct an annual space review to confirm allocations and keep track of allocations within units.  The School of Nursing administrator will provide floor plans with assignments and square footage analysis for each unit.

Principles of Allocation for Current Space within the Health Sciences Complex

A. Departmental spaces – faculty and staff

1. Each academic department (BNHS, FCN, PCH) should maintain at least:

a. One large conference room

b. One small conference room

c. One faculty/staff lounge

d. One central workroom

2. Faculty and departmental staff offices are normally maintained within the departmental space in the Health Sciences Complex.

3. Fulltime faculty are entitled to a single office; all others may need to share an office

4. Post-doctoral and visiting scholars are housed in departments.

B. Student Spaces   Undergraduate and graduate student spaces (labs, mailboxes, lounges, shared computer space, for example) are ordinarily allocated and maintained by the Academic Programs Office through shared school spaces (3d, 4th and 6th floor)

C. Research and Externally Funded Project Spaces

1. Departments (BNHS, FCN, PCH) are the first choice, whenever possible, for housing project faculty and staff from externally funded grant projects.

2. Units should not evict anyone with a funded project from their allocated space.  As long as there is a proposal being submitted or in submission, units should not reallocate space too soon after a project has ended unless the PI concurs the space will no longer be needed for their research.

3. When the head of a newly funded program has ascertained with the departmental chair and administrator that no space exists within the PI or Program Director’s department, he or she should consult with the Associate Dean for Research (research projects) regarding availability of school shared spaces.

a. Use of shared research laboratory spaces and services is negotiated with the appropriate lab manager via the Office for Nursing Research, and is costs are ordinarily built into the research grant prior to submission.  Examples of such spaces are the immune laboratory, biobehavioral laboratories, sleep laboratory.

b. Additionally, investigators may apply for specialized shared clinical research space by application to the Clinical Studies Unit (Associate Dean for Research and Lab Research Advisory Committee). Intent to use CSU space should be submitted to the operations Manager in the Office for Nursing Research with the proposal submission.

[Information:  CSU Advisory allocation principles are the following: The T429 suite is a shared space for activities with clients. No staff is housed therein.  The conference space in T444 is shared use and requires project signup.  Other portions of T444 may be used to house project directors and key staff of projects using the CSU that require regular proximity to the clinical activities spaces.  T644 B & C are also conceptually part of the CSU.]

4. If no other research space is available in the departments or in the school’s shared research space, then the research program or project must locate appropriate space off-campus, with assistance from the UW rental office.

Planning for Off-Campus Space

1. At the time the GC-1 is submitted, the Departmental Administrator will confirm that the project, if funded, will be located on or off-campus.  This will be reflected in the indirect cost rate contained in the proposal and on the GC-1 form.  The Office of Nursing Research has spreadsheets to assist in calculating budgets for rental space, and current rates are found on the Office for Nursing Research web page under Grant-Help. Budget justification language for rental space can also be found in the same web page.

2. The next step occurs when the proposal is nearing a positive funding decision from the granting agency.  At that time, the PI should contact the department Administrator to arrange for appropriate space.  The School of Nursing Administrator will contact the University of Washington Real Estate Office to initiate the search for appropriate space and secure the space.  Additionally, the School of Nursing Administrator will assist with ensuring the provision of infrastructure needs (e.g. mail, access to Ethernet, IS support).

Criteria For Allocating Offices or Programs to Off-Campus Space

If the School is successful in obtaining consolidated square footage in one or more off-campus sites, we will work with faculty and staff to design a coherent plan to move logical groups to such a site, rather than use the chronological decision mode implied in the planning process above.  The following is a first cut at criteria that might be used.

These criteria are intended to guide decisions about which faculty and staff will be moved to locations outside the Health Sciences Building.  The criteria are intended to be neither exclusive nor exhaustive.

When deciding to move an office, program, or activity (hereinafter called a ‘program’) to a location outside the Health Sciences Building, unit heads should analyze the following for all instructional and research programs within their purview:

1. How much personal interaction the program requires with students, faculty, and staff on a routine basis
2. Costs to the school, unit, or program
3. Human impact on students, faculty, and staff
4. Availability of ancillary resources (e.g., x-ray labs, specialized space, library resources, other specialized equipment)
5. Access by program participants such as research subjects and student researchers
6. Availability of infrastructure support at the off-campus location (e.g., mail services, transportation, IS support, copying, furniture, moving costs, facility management, and security)

Funding Considerations

It is the policy of the School of Nursing that movement of any program to an off-campus location must remain revenue-neutral to the school.  This means that the school will not contribute additional state-allocated resources to a program because of its movement to a new location, nor does the school expect that unrestricted revenues to the school will decline as a result of the move.  Specifically, the school will not permit a move that causes more expenses in or a decline of revenues in its GOF (07), LFA (74) or RCR (75) funds.

Existing programs being considered for an off-campus location can negotiate a change in indirect cost rates to offset rent costs.  This may require an agreement with the University of Washington Office for Sponsored Programs and the approval of funding agencies.  The Office for Nursing Research will assist with this renegotiation.

New programs must either have departmental space allocated within the HSB facility or assurance from the Office for Nursing Research that shared research space will be available if funding is approved in order to use the standard indirect cost rate when the proposal is submitted.  If neither assurance is available from a unit head, then proposals must be submitted using an off-campus indirect cost rate.  Unit heads may waive this requirement when the new program is expected to take the place of another existing program within the HSB.  Such information must be confirmed in writing to the Office for Nursing Research.

The Office for Nursing Research has posted standard cost rates to use for off-campus locations. Be aware that if significant alterations to the off-campus space is needed, or furniture is required, that it is usually possible to negotiate these costs with the landlord and include their cost in the overall rental of the space.  If this is the case, then the Administrator will inform the Real Estate Office to include these as part of the lease costs.

The Dean’s office pays for basic phone costs on-campus.  This includes the monthly phone line charges, a handset charge, and voice-mail.  Options added to this service (e.g., 1-800 number, second handset, call-forwarding, and the like) are the responsibility of the project.

Updated 7/2007