I. SCOPE OF SOLICITATION
Erie Community College is soliciting submissions of qualifications for services to assist the college in developing a Comprehensive Academic Master Plan (Master Plan) to include all campuses and satellite locations. The services will involve a series of planning initiatives that will culminate with a Comprehensive Academic Master Plan. A major part of this Master Plan will involve identifying the variety of educational programs required to meet current and future community education and workforce needs. The basis for this Plan will lead to a framework for the orderly development of all capital improvements to support the role, mission, and educational plans of the College. This project will examine internal and external factors that will provide the framework for the way the College will address growth in the future. The final deliverable to the college will include a Comprehensive Environmental Scan, an Academic Plan, a Comprehensive Facilities Assessment, and a Strategic Facilities Implementation Plan.
II. COLLEGE PROFILE
Mission Statement
Erie Community College meets the needs of a diverse student body and contributes to regional economic vitality by providing high-quality, flexible, affordable and accessible educational programs committed to student success.
Vision Statement
Erie Community College will serve as an innovative learning resource by striving for universal access to lifelong learning, catalyzing economic and cultural development, and supporting a diverse and mobile student body.
Academic Programs
ECC offers 59 programs leading to an Associate in Arts, an Associate in Science, an Associate in Applied Science, or an Associate in Occupational Studies degree in four academic divisions: Health Sciences, Business and Public Service, Engineering and Technologies, and Liberal Arts. In addition, the college currently offers 33 certificate programs for students desiring concentrated instruction leading to employment in demand occupations. ECC also offers 13 of the aforementioned degrees or certificates in an online modality (ranking in the top five of SUNY Community Colleges in number of online courses offered) as well as 2 joint-registration programs. The total degrees, certificates, and partnership programs that ECC offers is 92.
ECC has over 350 transfer articulation agreements with close to 40 four-year institutions in Western New York and outside the region and state. ECC offers off-site courses in faith-based locations throughout Erie County, and at area community sites including GEICO and other locations.
ECC has partnered with numerous local, national, and multi-national businesses to provide local workers an opportunity to upgrade their skills. Our Office of Workforce Development consists of four divisions (Community Education, Corporate Training, Driving Programs and ECC’s One Stop Training Center) and offers a multitude of non-credit and credit programs, providing thousands of individuals annually with a wide variety of practical and necessary training.
For the 2015-16 academic year, ECC’s Advanced Studies had enrollment programs with 47 high schools, a total enrollment of 2,669 students (2,041 unduplicated students) and eight Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) Centers, allowing students to earn both high school and college credit.
Facilities
ECC maintains three distinct campuses under a unified governance structure with a common mission and vision.
The ECC North Campus, located in Williamsville since 1960, is the oldest and the largest of the three campuses of ECC. Today, North Campus is spread over 120 acres, will soon have ten buildings, and will total approximately 565,000 square feet when the new Nanotechnology Annex (6,100 square feet: spring 2017 completion date) and STEM building (57,000 square feet) construction is completed in fall 2017. The North Campus serves approximately 41% of ECC’s students.
In 1982, the City Campus moved to its present site at the Old Post Office, a 225,000 square foot architectural landmark built in 1901 in downtown Buffalo. In 1993, as part of the World University Games, New York State and Erie County built a 125,000 square foot athletic center that was turned over to ECC after completion of the games. The Burt Flickinger Center has an Olympic sized 50-meter swimming pool, three regulation Basketball courts, a 3,000-person capacity field house, an indoor jogging track, and a Wellness Center. The newest facility, located on Oak Street across from the City Campus, opened in January, 2008. The 53,000 square foot facility consists of 20 classrooms and labs, faculty and administrative offices. The City Campus serves approximately 20% of ECC’s students. All three buildings are within a block of each other.
South Campus, located in Orchard Park since 1974, consists of six inter-connected buildings, surrounding a courtyard. In addition, a seventh building was converted for the Information Technology Department and a County Auto Bureau while still housing maintenance operations. The total square footage of the campus is 390,000 and it serves approximately 20% of ECC’s students.
III. SCOPE OF WORK/SPECIFICATIONS
Purpose
The College desires qualifications-based submissions for Professional Services to prepare a comprehensive Academic Master Plan to include all campuses and locations. The Academic Master Plan will establish a framework for the orderly development of all capital improvements to support the role, missions, and educational plans of the College. This project will examine internal and external factors that will provide the framework for the College to address growth in the future.
Request for Proposal
Offerors are encouraged to examine and investigate existing site conditions before submitting. The College campuses are open-access facilities and offerors are free to tour any campus or related facilities weekdays during normal operating hours. To schedule “on your own” site visit, contact (Mike Pietkiewicz, Executive Vice President of Operations 716-270-4670). The tour may be conducted by other applicable college personnel. Classes may be in session and offerors should be careful not to disrupt instructional or administrative activities during the visit. In addition, ECC will be available for a staff guided tour by our maintenance department on July 17th. The tour will include all ECC facilities. Offerors are required to contact Mike Pietkiewicz by July 10th to let ECC know that they will be participating in the planned tour.
Scope of Work
College properties to be included in the Academic Master Plan are:
1. All facilities on the Erie Community College three campuses.
2. All ancillary locations.
Following are components of the scope of services:
Comprehensive Environmental Scan
The first step in this process will be to analyze and document all external forces that have and will influence the operations and offerings of the College – the Comprehensive Environmental Scan. This scan must include a look at the neighborhoods and communities serviced by all campuses from a geopolitical and physical environment in relation to the College’s Mission, Vision, and Strategic Plan. The Comprehensive Environmental Scan will deliver a document that summarizes the region’s current state with regard to workforce as well as transfer needs. The Comprehensive Environmental Scan will lead directly to the Academic Plan.
Relevant external forces to be reviewed include but are not limited to:
1. Local workforce needs as determined by local chambers of commerce, regional business organizations, and small as well as large business leaders in Western New York;
2. An assessment of all transfer and workforce degrees in the Western New York region in relation to ECC’s own current and potential degree and certificate programs;
3. A demand assessment of current and future non-credit needs in the Western New York region that might be fulfilled by ECC’s current and potential non-credit offerings;
4. National, regional and local economic development trends and projections;
5. Changes in workforce characteristics, including supply/demand, skill requirements, etc;
6. Demographic trends and projections;
7. Population trends and projections;
8. Immigration rates and projections;
9. Transportation initiatives;
10. K-12 trends;
11. High school graduation trends and projections;
12. Educational delivery methods, trends, and projections;
13. Higher education trends;
14. Academic preparedness (needs, trends, and projections);
15. Trends in inter-regional cooperation/partnerships between educational institutions;
16. State and local government fiscal constraints;
17. Changes in societal priorities, values, etc.;
18. Federal/state/local policy changes regarding education;
19. Technological trends and projections;
20. Market penetration rate trends and projections;
21. Competitive factors trends and projections;
22. Security (personal, property, crime, law enforcement, etc.);
23. Neighborhood & Community Survey (image the College projects);
24. Post-high school educational needs of the marketplace;
Academic Planning
The Academic Plan will identify the variety of educational programs required to meet current and future community education and workforce needs. The Academic Plan will be heavily influenced by the results of the Comprehensive Environmental Scan. In turn, it will heavily influence the Comprehensive Facilities Assessment.
Using data from the Comprehensive Environmental Scan, key questions to consider include the following:
· What is the image the College projects?
· What does the public expect from the College?
· Is the College offering the right programs and services for their service area?
· What should the College be offering in the future?
· Is the college currently underserving the population of mid-career professionals in the WNY region?
· Is the college currently offering programs at the right times and modalities? Is there sufficient demand to support additional evening, weekend, and/or online programs?
An analysis of building uses, program and support services space needs (including expansion progression) should be part of the delivered product. Anticipated inclusions are:
1. Current programming strengths and weaknesses, including programs that may be obsolete, and/or not relevant to the student of the 21st century;
2. Demand analysis for credit and non-credit coursework by students who do not wish to matriculate at the college (both in seated and online environments);
3. Assessment of optimal enrollment headcounts for each current and future academic program, by location;
4. Assessment of and recommendations concerning the college’s current computer lab spaces;
5. Opportunities, constraints, and threats;
6. Projected changes in student body demographics during the next decade;
7. Assessment of ECC’s current approach to enrollment projections;
8. Assessment of resources to support the college’s retention goals broken down by academic program and to include financial, human, physical, and programmatic resources;
9. Options for campus, building and space utilization by program;
10. Projected technological advancements and their impact (To include an analysis of lecture capture, online coursework, hybrid courses, and flipped learning);
11. Assessment of national, regional, and international economic development initiatives;
12. Assessment of management and administrative systems’ ability to meet current and future needs;
13. Peer institutions and their impact;
14. Recommendations by program;
15. Incorporate environmental sustainability into all planning. Discuss integration of sustainable building goals, energy benchmarking, and alignment with ECC’s climate goals;
16. Include incremental plans to modernize for enhanced energy efficiency and effectiveness. Include defined energy efficiency plan and sustainability strategies;
17. Identify living laboratory opportunities and potential student participation in facilities study;
18. An approach for updating the Academic Plan.
Comprehensive Facilities Assessment
The Comprehensive Facilities Assessment will ascertain the extent of deferred maintenance, remaining facility life, and renovations needed. The Facilities Condition Assessment of all college-owned buildings in the service area will also evaluate transportation and parking issues and identify systemic strategies for facility improvements. As a part of this assessment, the following deliverable is expected: future land uses, including outlying properties, with respect to academic facilities, support facilities, sports and recreation facilities, athletic fields, open space, landscaping, parking, general infrastructure, utilities, intergovernmental coordination, a comprehensive list of deferred maintenance for all buildings, and capital improvements.
Anticipated inclusions in the Comprehensive Facilities Assessment include the following:
1. Analysis, by location: future land uses, including outlying properties, with respect to academic facilities, support facilities (including information technology resources such as open labs, wireless accessibility, and on-campus power strip access), open space, landscaping, parking, sidewalks, pedestrian crosswalks, traffic considerations, general infrastructure, utilities, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvements.
2. Identification of space needs for academic and administrative departments and student activities, including food services and collaborative student workspaces, to include the following:
a. Distribution and adequacy of existing space by type/use
b. Perform a space utilization study for all instructional spaces. Evaluate existing utilization percentage rates (hour and seat fill), and use patterns by day of the week and time of day.
c. Forecast needs: Calculate existing space use, and current and future space requirements based on enrollment projections, accepted space guidelines, and peer institution comparisons. Identify adjustments to state guidelines that are needed to address non-conforming requirements or space needs based on new technology and/or pedagogies.
d. Develop a tabular comparative summary of current and future space needs, existing capacities, possible reassignments, and projected shortages or surpluses of new space. Include the following data: department, current and future FTEs, space by type (actual, current calculated and projected), space deficits or surpluses and other relevant data.
3. Identification of options for space allocation, relocation, and new space, and to meet needs and areas of potential growth to include analyses of current program locations versus relocation to other campus sites
4. Documentation of deficiencies and the extent of deferred maintenance
5. Documentation of life cycle of the existing facilities and identify projected renovations
6. Identification of utility infrastructure needs associated with current and future building and space use
7. Identification of options for energy conservation (sustainable technologies)
8. Analysis of current data and anticipated needs for transit access to and movement within and between all campuses and other previously identified facilities/sites
9. Evaluation of the quantity and locations for adequate parking
10. Evaluation of road walkway systems, traffic impacts, and options for improvements, and ways to minimize traffic impacts for planned growth
11. Identification of net useable land areas, appropriate densities, and highest and best use
12. Identification of retail opportunities as alternate revenue generation
Strategic Facilities Implementation Plan