Paulien & Associates assisted the University in determining the facilities and financial impact of increasing enrollment by 25% from 24,000 to 30,000 students. Guidelines were applied to determine the amount of space needed for the colleges and schools within both the Academic Affairs and the Health Affairs disciplines for classrooms, teaching laboratories, open laboratories, research laboratories, offices, library, student union, and housing. This traditional guideline analysis was supplemented by collecting comparative data from other leading public research universities. Space available was compared on a school-by-school basis with that provided from the peer institutions, adjusting for differences in enrollment and faculty size. This study projected the amount and type of space required to bring each school and college within UNC-Chapel Hill to a competitive level.
A follow-up study was conducted to update the space needs analysis for the Colleges and Schools and to assess the impact of new facilities under construction or in planning stages.