Campus Policy on Leasing Space

Purpose - The purpose of this policy is to specify the conditions under which the Campus will lease space for academic and administrative units at MU.

Background

The MU campus actively promotes planning for space needs at the departmental, college, and administrative levels. Colleges and departments are encouraged to make programmatic decisions such as those involved in recruitment or acquisition of grants, with space needs in mind. Costs associated with obtaining and/or renovating space must be included in the total budget to reflect true operational program costs.

Departments requesting additional space must first look within their existing space assignments and study the feasibility of internally reallocating space to meet existing needs. If the department cannot reallocate space internally, or if the type of space needed does not reflect the type of space available, the college or administrative unit will look within its current assigned space to identify usable space to meet the needs of the requesting unit.

Should adequate space not be identified, the college or administrative unit will work with Space Planning & Management (SPM) to identify other campus space that may be made available to the requesting unit. SPM will identify unused assignable space, assigned but unused or underutilized space or space assigned to another unit as appropriate to meet the needs of the requesting unit.

Conditions Warranting Leasing of Space

Requests for leased space may include, but are not limited to:

1. Site specific requests to support service provision and/or data collection in situations where such activities cannot feasibly be conducted in an on-campus location.
2. Requests from colleges or administrative units in situations where no functionally adequate space can be provided on campus at a reasonable cost.
3. Requests to support functions which benefit the entire campus and for which no acceptable on-campus space is available.
4. Requests for swing space that cannot be accommodated on campus within existing owned facilities.

In general, requests for leasing of space to meet programmatic requirements for service delivery or data collection will be considered only if funds for lease costs are available in the operating budget of the program. Requests from colleges or administrative units for other purposes will be honored only if suitable space is unavailable and if the state of available space is such that remodeling or relocation costs would exceed the costs if leased space, especially for short term use.

Process for Requesting Leased Space

1. If the leased space is funded solely from departmental funds then the department will work directly with Business Services to obtain/negotiate the lease and Business Services will consult with Campus Facilities regarding other services on an as-needed basis.
2. If the leased space is being partially or wholly funded by the campus, then the requesting department must complete the space request forms (SRF) and then proceed through the campus committees on space for review and approval prior to the finalization of the lease.
3. If a facilities/space agreement is being negotiated with a non-E&G division/department (ex.MU Health Care) by an education and general administrative/unit/department/division (E&G) whether departmentally funded and/or campus funded, then the space request forms (SRF) must be completed and campus approval must be obtained first, before the facilities/space agreement can be executed.

Space request forms can be found and downloaded at here.

The completed SRF’s should then be forwarded to Gerald Morgan, Director, Space Planning & Management, 180 General Services Building for committee discussion and processing.