By Abbie Leland
Thousands of students, employees, visitors and community members share space on Oregon State University’s Corvallis campus each day. Looking at the numbers, the core Corvallis campus adds up to 570 acres and 5.7 million gross square footage of space.
Have you ever wondered how all of the pieces of this large space puzzle fit together? The Space Management team with University Facilities, Infrastructure and Operations helps answer that question. People across campus recognize space analyst Eric Smith as a familiar face when it comes to space. He helps compile information for the annual OSU Space Survey. During his seven years with the university, Smith has learned a lot about OSU’s floor plans, square footage and just how much goes into moving to new spaces or from place to place.
“I enjoy getting out on campus and meeting people. I’ve learned a lot of random things, seeing all the different architecture, all the different research [that goes on at the university],” Smith said. “If you visit a space and it is being used for research, those people in the space are going to talk to you about the research they are doing.”
The tasks managed by the Space Management team align with one of the principles included in the Division of Finance and Administration’s Framework for Success project: Active stewardship of resources.
The team provides effective stewardship of OSU’s space, by managing space requests, facilitating the annual space survey, supporting campus moves coordination and providing space allocation and utilization reports.
“This is what I do when I go out and look at spaces and talk to people for the space survey. We’re here to serve the university. We don’t want to underutilize our space,” Smith said.
