GUILFORD, Conn., Nov. 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sightlines, a leader in helping academic institutions better manage their facilities and capital investment strategies, today announced that it has been engaged by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to conduct a comprehensive study of deferred maintenance in select buildings on a number of its members' campuses.
Founded in 1887, the APLU is a research, policy and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems and higher education organizations. Sightlines will study deferred maintenance practices in buildings on those APLU member campuses surveyed that house agriculture, forestry, veterinary sciences, food sciences and human sciences academic programs, and agriculture extension sites. These buildings are used to conduct major research funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other public and private entities.
"The purpose of our study is to provide the APLU leadership, academic deans, researchers and facilities executives at the surveyed APLU member campuses with a reliable set of data on these important buildings so they can better understand the amount and potential future impact of deferred maintenance, as well as the implications for continuing to conduct leading-edge academic research in the 21st century," said James Kadamus, vice president at Sightlines and the principal executive for the study.
Deferred maintenance refers to the postponement of maintenance activities and capital investments -- such as repairs on property, facilities and machinery -- in order to match limited budgets or realign available resources.
"This is an important effort for our institutions, individually and collectively, and will allow a substantial detailed presentation of our infrastructure deficiencies that need to be addressed to more effectively and efficiently deliver programs in research, extension and instruction if we are to meet the challenges of the future," said Ian Maw, vice president of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources at APLU.
The Sightlines research team will collect data on buildings at participating universities and then validate the data collected against their proprietary databases, which includes deferred maintenance backlog data for more than 600 campuses, or approximately 25 percent of all campuses in the U.S. The final deliverable will be a written report that will document the amount of deferred maintenance at APLU member campuses and specific recommendations for actions that can be taken at the campus, state and national levels to address facilities management challenges.
In 2014, Sightlines conducted a similar study of deferred maintenance in Canadian universities that was published by the Canadian University Business Officers.
The final report for the APLU study is projected for completion in spring 2015. For more information, please email jkadamus@sightlinesllc.com.
About Sightlines
Founded in 2000, Sightlines works with more than 500 college and university campuses each year. Their ROPASM (Return-on-Physical-Assets) service provides a holistic approach to defining capital needs and provides an independent view of campus performance, reliably benchmarked against peer institutions. Academic institutions use ROPASM to defend budgets, secure additional funds, evaluate new construction, rebalance budgets, assess maintenance backlogs, determine proper staffing and service levels, and successfully present budgets to boards. Sightlines was named to the 2013 Inc. 5000 list, an annual report from Inc. Magazine of the fastest growing privately owned businesses in the U.S., for the fifth consecutive year. For more information, please call 203.682.4952, go to http://www.sightlines.com or email insights@sightlines.com.
About APLU
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is a research, policy, and advocacy organization representing 237 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems and affiliated organizations. Founded in 1887, APLU is North America's oldest higher education association with member institutions in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories, Canada and Mexico. Annually, APLU member campuses enroll 4.7 million undergraduates and 1.3 million graduate students, award 1.1 million degrees, employ 1.3 million faculty and staff and conduct $41 billion in university-based research.