Tracking Space Use

1. Occupancy of Rooms By Department

The Space Inventory process tracks the use of rooms by the occupying department and responsible individuals. The system, iSpace does NOT record “ownership” of rooms. iSpace records occupancy of rooms, even if loaned or borrowed from another department. Thus, department space coordinators should ensure that the final space inventory for the department shows only the rooms that were occupied/used during the fiscal year by the department. The departments are represented by an Oracle Department Code. It is assumed that Space Coordinators are already familiar with the Org Codes at Stanford.

2. Occupancy of Rooms By the Primary Individual

In addition to the department, we track the person responsible for directing the activities (Functional Uses) within each room. This person is called the Primary Individual and is associated with each department occupying the room. There may be more than one individual per department recorded by their percentage share. The Primary Individual is one of the following:

• Faculty Member, especially Principal Investigators. These individuals are tracked by name to their offices and labs.
• Department Chair, Program Director, or School Dean. These individuals are responsible for the use of the ‘common departmental space’ and are tracked by position title, not by name.
• Administrative Department Senior Executive (Vice Provost, Director, etc.). These individuals are responsible for all space in a non-academic department and are tracked by position title, not by individual.

3. Function Codes for Each PI

We track the Functional Use Codes to each person responsible for directing the activities within each room.  Each identified Primary Individual will have a segregate set of one or more Functional Use Codes recorded for the specific activities related to their occupancy of the room.

4. Reporting Period

In the fiscal year when a full census of the space inventory is performed, department space coordinators should consider how the space was used over the entire 12-month fiscal year (September 1 through August 31) and not how the space is being used at the moment the space inventory is being updated.

5. Shared Rooms Full Year Use

Department space coordinators must consider space use over the 12 months of the fiscal year and should code rooms based on use over that period, rather than at any one point in time. Over the course of the year a single room may have been used by more than one department and/or for more the one purpose (as defined by a Room Type Code). 

Various coding options can be used to arrive at a composite picture of each room’s use over a full 12-month period.  For instance, space that is used for more than one function at a time (e.g., Organized Research and Instruction) or that is used by more than one function at different times during the year should be coded to portray the correct percentage of use of each function. 

6. Shared Rooms Multiple Time Period Allocations

In order to simplify the complex usage situations iSpace, can record more than one time period of use during the fiscal year. These multiple Time Period Allocations record start and stop date dates for how a room was used over time. Thus if a room has changed occupancy, Room Type or Functional Use, we can end date the current Time Period Allocation (showing the existing usage) and start a new allocation for the changed use. This eliminates the requirement for ‘room splits’ or calculating ‘actual average’ usage.

Within each Time Period Allocation, iSpace allows for shared usage of a room for: multiple Departments; multiple PIs within each department; and multiple Functional Use Codes for each PI. The shared usage is recorded at each level with the estimated percentage of use for each occupant, or functional use. Thus, both simple and very complex coding situations created by real life shared usage can be accommodated easily in the system without calculations to estimate annual average use.

7. Shared Rooms Shared Occupancy and Multiple Uses In Percentages

Within each Time Period Allocation, iSpace allows for shared usage of a room for: multiple Departments; multiple Primary Individuals (PI’s) within each department; and multiple Functional Use Codes for each PI.  The shared usage is recorded at each level with the estimated percentage of use for each occupant, or functional use.  Thus, both simple and very complex coding situations created by real life shared usage can be accommodated easily in the system without calculations to estimate annual average use.

8. Level of Use Report

Report functional use  activity levels that are significant enough to be measurable and supportable.

The extent to which space is to be functional is dependent upon the extent it is accurate, material and supportable. Not all functional use can be directly measured; some estimating of percentage of use will be necessary. However, activities, which occur occasionally or only incidentally to the overall activities, duties, purposes, or functions of the people occupying the space, are not necessary to report. Examples include, a small portion of a sponsored project in a class lab, a student’s occasional use of laboratory space to do homework or fundraising phone calls done incidentally by faculty in their office. These Instructions attempt to define all recognized activities (in federal government terms), but you are not required to report minute nuances. The goal is supportable and material accuracy.