There
is good news and bad news about our UBC facilities and
infrastructure.
The bad news is that many of our campus buildings are aging
fast. By the middle of this decade, average building age
is projected to be 39.6 years. With a life span of 30
to 40 years, we know that vital Building
Systems have to be replaced soon. A good facility management
program would have renewed and replaced those building systems
in a planned orderly fashion, bit by bit, part by part over
the course of the building life cycle. But instead of doing
the work yesterday, we've put it off till tomorrow. The result
is a pile of Accumulated Deferred Maintenance, or ADM,
that needs to be whittled away.
Buildings are not falling down, but they're not being properly
maintained either. If they deteriorate due to lack of adequate
servicing and upkeep or by a failure to make repairs on a regular
basis, the critical endeavors of all our students, faculty
and staff are placed in jeopardy. We need both a plan of
action to revitalize our facilities and support the university's
academic and research mission. We also need the popular will
to put the plan into effect. To reach our goal of being Canada's
finest university, we need to act now. To read more about why
time is of the essence, see "Investing
in Renewal".
