Building Higher Education

Although construction on college campuses is affected by general conditions in the state and national economies, the peaks and valleys are not felt as sharply or as quickly as in commercial building. Capital projects underway today on private campuses are fueled by fundraising drives that often began years ago. The vast majority of MnSCU’s capital funds come from general obligation bonds approved by the state legislature, and current projects reflect legislative bonding cycles dating back to 2004, says Laura King, MnSCU vice chancellor and chief financial officer.

Goblirsch concedes that current construction relies on money raised or approved in years gone by. But the good news for architects and builders, he says, is that “planning and design haven’t slowed down much, if at all.”

The drive to build or renovate (King notes that most of MnSCU’s activity involves renovating existing structures) does not arise in anticipation of a demographic spike in the number of high school graduates who will be entering college in a few years. In fact, King and Laird say, Minnesota’s high school graduation rates are peaking right about now. Laird says the rate is expected to decline by 9 percent in the next 10 years.

He adds that many private colleges in the state do not intend to increase their enrollment significantly in the near future. Most are happy to keep their numbers steady. Total enrollment for the 17 schools in the Minnesota Private College Council stands at about 57,000, roughly the same as on all campuses of the University of Minnesota. If that number increases at all, Laird says, the additional students will be working adults who attend classes mostly on evenings and weekends.

Working adults are attractive customers for public and private colleges partly because their nontraditional hours allow a school to get more use out of existing classrooms and other resources instead of building new ones. But that doesn’t mean adults bring with them no capital requirements at all, especially when they arrive in large numbers. “As the economy goes down,” King says, “demand for our services generally goes up. More people want to re-skill.”

Of the 382,000 learners enrolled in MnSCU schools, only 59 percent are full-time students. The average age of MnSCU students is 25.4. If 41 percent of the system’s students are nontraditional, King says, “that’s a lot of working adults.” Many MnSCU schools are two-year colleges, and most of its campuses consist of a single building. Students don’t walk to class and then simply return to nearby dormitories or apartments. “Places are needed for them to sit while they wait for a class to start. A lot of our older buildings didn’t have chairs anywhere,” she says. The adult students “also want to plug in laptops, charge their cell phones, and use printers” while they wait. That calls for new kinds of spaces, as well as new wiring.

Whether they are looking at a potential growth market in adult learning or a static population of high school grads, colleges naturally must compete for students. “Promoting a college as a place to get a quality education means quality facilities,” observes Whitney Peyton, senior managing director in the Bloomington office of real estate services company CB Richard Ellis. “And that means stadiums, dorms, classrooms—all of that stuff.”