NSU Florida Saves $70M Using Occupancy Analytics

When everything from construction costs to student enrollment is on the rise, the knee-jerk reaction is for colleges and universities to raise tuition too, however, the appetite and affordability of colleges has been thrust into the limelight as Gen Z makes their way through campus halls. Universities like NOVA Florida with fiduciary responsibility in mind are turning to utilization data to support cost reductions.

The Space Utilization Imperative

As colleges continue to shutter doors, NOVA Florida is growing undergraduate enrollments and square footage. And with hybrid work and learning taking hold, many institutions are discovering that they may not be facing a space shortage, but rather a utilization problem.

Every January gyms fill up with new year goals only to be empty again by February. The same is true for today’s lecture halls. Registrars have 300 assigned students in class with only ⅓ of those students showing up week after week to listen to lectures. Today’s students are accustomed to asynchronous or online lectures, but the registrar is still booking classrooms as if the course runs on-premise only.

And with a dispersed campus like at NOVA Florida, Daniel Alfonso Ed.D., VP of Facilities and Safety, can’t simply walk the campus on a regular basis to understand utilization. Alfonso needed data to understand how his campus is being used. Lambent Spaces occupancy analytics platform leverages Wi-Fi occupancy counts to scale across his growing campus, continuously measuring utilization over semesters and years.

“Previous utilization is a great predictor of future use,” said Alfonso at Tradeline’s Space Strategies session. He gave classroom utilization data to the registrar to help them appropriately book classrooms into smaller classes, optimizing their campus for hybrid learning and freeing up space for swing space, future classroom designs, and other uses.

“Previous utilization is a great predictor of future use.” Daniel Alfonso, Ed.D., VP of Facilities and Safety, NOVA Florida

Rightsizing classrooms helped the registrar improve classroom utilization by leveraging multiple semesters of utilization, but it also helped Alfonso find swing space during his dining hall renovation. Alfonso faced 19 months of disruption due to construction of a new dining hall. He was able to relocate classrooms assigned to an auditorium based on hybrid learning patterns of attendance and use that space for temporary dining. This saved him from having to erect temporary dining facilities and achieving his construction goals.

HVAC Setbacks – Saving $1M on Heating and Cooling Costs

In Southern Florida, HVAC chillers work for hours on end to maintain a comfortable temperature for students, faculty, and staff. For facilities leaders like Alfonso), this amounts to about a significant portion of their overall energy bill.

Alfonso has seen the cost of energy increase about 42% since 2019 which accounts for a significant increase when you extrapolate that across the sprawling NSU Campus. Just how much does it cost to run a dispersed campus? For NSU Florida, “the cost of energy is $7.3 Million dollars a year – with 40% of that cost coming from HVAC costs,” Alfonso said at Tradeline Space Strategies this November.

To combat rising costs, Alfonso and his facilities team has been running HVAC set backs using Lambent Spaces new HVAC setback report, finding that in all of their measured spaces, they have an opportunity to reduce HVAC run time by 18-21%, saving $1 Million on cooling costs based on the setbacks.

Avoiding Unnecessary Construction Costs

In higher ed, it’s believed that having a crane in the air on campus is a sign of prosperity. Parents and alumni see physical campus expansion as a sign of health and quality. But what happens when the rising cost of construction serves you a $70 million new construction proposal?

Faced with exactly this scenario, NSU Florida had a decision to make. Spend aggressively for a building that even once built would cost them millions in maintenance and operating costs or find space on their existing campus to house more classrooms and collaboration spaces.

Registrar data would suggest every room was accounted for, but campus walkabouts had Daniel Alfonso questioning utilization. And so, he turned to occupancy analytics data in his Lambent Spaces platform. Actual occupancy data collected over multiple semesters showed opportunities for adjusting classroom scheduling to rightsize classrooms for the hybrid world. This helped Alfonso identify classrooms that can be placed into smaller capacity rooms for the bulk of the semester, using lecture halls and bigger occupancy spaces for test days.

By right-sizing classrooms and optimizing existing space usage, the university avoided the hefty construction bill while still meeting the needs of its expanding student body, saving $70 million dollars.

Densification: The New Frontier in Campus Planning

The concept of densification – making more efficient use of existing spaces – is becoming increasingly crucial in higher education. This approach involves:

• Identifying underutilized areas and repurposing them for high demand uses
• Implementing flexible, multi-use spaces that can adapt to changing needs throughout the day or semester
• Optimizing scheduling to increase classroom utilization rates

By focusing on densification, institutions can effectively increase their capacity without the need for physical expansion or increased costs passed on to students. Purdue University has similarly used occupancy analytics and predictive AI to redesign underutilized spaces to meet campus goals. By densifying areas of use on campus, they can group cohort needs and put resources towards already used spaces, taking underutilized spaces offline and saving on operational and maintenance costs.

Benefits Beyond Cost Control

While the financial advantages are clear, optimizing space utilization offers additional benefits:

• Improved student experience: By aligning spaces with actual usage patterns, universities can create more effective learning environments.
• Enhanced sustainability: Efficient use of existing buildings reduces the carbon footprint associated with new construction.
• Increased enrollment capacity: Better space utilization allows institutions to accept more students without physical expansion.
• Flexibility for future needs: Understanding space usage allows for more agile responses to changing educational trends and student demographics.

The key to managing rising costs and increasing student enrollment in higher education lies not in constant expansion or raising tuition, but in intelligent utilization and densification of existing resources. As exemplified by Purdue University and NSU Florida, the strategic application of space management technologies can lead to substantial savings, operational improvements, and increased capacity for growth. For institutions looking to thrive in an increasingly competitive and cost-conscious environment, embracing these tools and methodologies is not just beneficial—it’s essential for sustainable growth and financial stability.