Five-Year Capital Outlay Plan (Amend-BOT) Steps

The five-year capital outlay program is approved by the Board of Trustees each year. In some instances, academic projects are proposed for the current fiscal year that were not included in the approved capital outlay program. Academic projects over $40 million can be presented for trustee consideration of amending the five-year capital program. For information regarding projects under $40M, see Amend via Delegated Approval button at the top of the page​. 

Typically these projects are not reliant on the systemwide funding sources, and instead are funded via campus reserves, grant awards, or donor contributions.

When proposing to amend the capital outlay program, the following steps should be followed:

A. ​​​Feasibility Study​​

The first step to programming a project is to complete a feasibility study to analyze the viability of proposed capital projects. The goal is to establish the project scope and estimate an accurate budget. A feasibility study will give focus to the project and identify key issues; analyze and narrow alternatives to a preferred solution; identify new opportunities through the investigative process; identify reasons to proceed or not proceed; and provide documentation that all options were thoroughly investigated. Finally, the study will analyze and recommend the type of construction delivery method​ most appropriate for the proposed project. During the conceptual scope and budget development stage, all feasibility studies should be reviewed by a Mechanical Review Board (MRB) member and Seismic Review Board (SRB) member, as applicable.

Information about service agreements for feasibility study consultants is available in Stage 4: Design.​

A1. Projects with instructional capacity (classrooms, teaching laboratories, faculty offices):

Projects that will include instructional space and/or faculty offices should consider the current classroom and teaching laboratory capacity campuswide and for the disciplines in the proposed projects. The Space and Facilities Database (SFDB)​ is the official record of campus buildings, and can be used to view current instructional capacity spaces.

A feasibility study should explore how the proposed project will support the campus academic master plan and impact the current instructional capacity. Refer to Stage 1: Strategic Planning​ for more information.

CPDC forms for determining space needs based on projected enrollment are available. Deviation from the CSU space standards utilized in these forms should be explained in the feasibility study. For more information on CSU Space Standards and calculating instructional capacity, see SUAM Section VI.

A1a. CPDC 1-2: Summary of Campus Capacity
This document reflects annual FTE capacity changes resulting from proposed major capital outlay projects, minor capital outlay projects, and other adjustments to the campus space inventories.
Capacity space is categorized as lecture or teaching laboratory. This report covers classrooms, upper- and lower-division class laboratories and faculty offices. The summary shall correlate assignable square foot capacities to full-time equivalent student enrollments and faculty positions for both existing space and projected space needs.

A1b. Lab Capacity vs Lab Enrollment
As with the CPDC 1-2, this report compares enrollment and capacity, but looks specifically at teaching laboratories by discipline (HEGIS category). The data used for this comparison are derived from the APDB and the SFDB. The total FTES for teaching laboratories at target are from the CPDC 1-2.

A1c. Utilization Reports
A Classroom and Teaching Laboratory Utilization report is generated annually for each campus. Capacity space in the CSU is categorized as lecture or teaching laboratory to serve the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) student enrollment. The reports are used to show how efficient the CSU is using capacity space based on California’s higher education space standards set by the state legislature. Instructional space needs are calculated in conformity with Space and Utilization Standards approved in September 1966 by the Coordinating Council for Higher Education (re-titled the California Postsecondary Education Commission prior to dissolution) as modified by the Legislature in March 1971 and June 1973. It is based on the hours per week a classroom or laboratory space is scheduled and the student station occupancy per class.

The utilization reports are sent to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) biannually.

A1d. CPDC 2-1: Full-Time Equivalent Enrollment Distribution
The first step in determining academic space need is to understand how the campus will grow over the next five years. This form is set up to collect historic enrollment data organized by discipline from the three most recent fall terms using the Course Section Report (CSR).

Using the historic data, campuses can project forward to the Occupancy Year (three years after the action year) and the Target Year (two years after the Occupancy Year). For purposes of capital planning, the Target Year is used to determine capacity space needs.

Enrollment growth by discipline may either be linear from the historic enrollment, or there may be changes within the distribution of FTE among the disciplines, depending on whether or not there are anticipated changes to existing or future academic programs.

A1e. CPDC 2-2: Enrollment Distribution by Level and Category of Instruction
Using the same historic and projected enrollment by discipline data from the CPDC 2-1, this form collects the breakdown of instructional type for each discipline: lecture, lab, activity, multimode, and other. The sets the foundation for knowing how much instruction within each discipline is taking place on campus in capacity space (classrooms and labs) versus how much takes place elsewhere. Once this information is collected for all disciplines impacted by the proposed project, it’s time to see how much space is needed in the Target Year by using the CPDC 2-3.

A1f. CPDC 2-3: Calculation of Space Requirement for Instructional Projects
This form is used to determine how much physical space is needed by applying the CSU space standards for capacity spaces (lecture, teaching labs, faculty offices), graduate research space, shops/storage, and any special instructional space for each of the impacted disciplines. This form also takes into account existing space to remain online.

A1g. CPDC 2-4: Summary of Space Requirement for a Building
The square footage identified in the CPDC 2-3 form(s) is then used to develop a room-by-room list, complete with square footage, discipline, space type, instructional level, and station count all identified for each space.

A2. Facilities Condition Assessments:

Proposed renovation or replacement projects should include analysis conducted in relevant Facilities Condition Assessments (FCA) or similar building studies to determine the feasibility of retaining existing space or proceeding with demolition. Your campus Facilities Condition Assessment reports can be found on the ISES database.

A3. CSU Seismic Priority List

The Chancellor’s Office maintains a seismic priority list of buildings identified by Seismic Review Board for which there are additional seismic retrofit requirements above CBC. This list is divided into two categories:

List 1: Buildings that are a priority for seismic retrofit should be retrofitted as soon as resources are available without regard to other modifications of the building.

List 2: Buildings that must be retrofitted when a major​ capital project is allocated to the building, notwithstanding an allowance from CBC to not do so.

Learn more about the CSU Seismic Priority List​

• SUAM Section VII: 9105 Feasib​ility Study​
• Education Code 89701 (4) (TDM reference)​

Forms/Templates:

• Feasibility Study Guidelines​​