EHE Space Allocation Policy

College of Education and Human Ecology

Last updated: June 13, 2025 (v1.0)

Introduction

This document contains policy and procedure recommendations for the use and allocation of office and research spaces within The College of Education and Human Ecology (EHE). 

The goal of this document is to provide EHE leadership with guidance to ensure equitable allocation of office and research spaces to EHE faculty, staff, and students across all EHE-occupied buildings.

Expectations

A strategic and consistent approach to space management should provide functional, well-maintained, and sustainable quality spaces while keeping rent and maintenance costs in alignment with EHE’s budget. General goals include:

• University office and space standards were last updated in 2021. All new and renovated buildings must adhere to these standards: University Space Standards.
• University office space standards reflect allocating a greater percentage of space to learning and research environments across the university. Additionally, the standards represent current employees’ on-campus space needs. This includes increased consideration of functional needs, flexible on-campus schedules, and efficient use of space.
• The updated university standards are intended to improve research space stewardship, sustainability, equity, optimization, and flexibility. These standards represent a shift from PI-assigned space to function-specific space to be shared when and where possible.
• EHE rents all office, research, and classroom space from the university. Costs, as of FY25 are approximately $21 per square foot and are expected to increase each fiscal year for the foreseeable future.  Many offices for the college are occupied far less than 40 hours per week, representing inefficient office space use within EHE. Additionally, specialty research spaces such as wet labs and clinical spaces cost EHE more money to maintain, operate, and renovate compared to office space.

Policies

College Office Space Policy

1. Tenure track (TT) and clinical track (CT) faculty members will be allocated assigned private, enclosed offices if they are working on campus 20+ or more hours/week. TT and CT faculty may be allocated assigned private, enclosed offices if working on campus less than 20 hours/week.
2. Staff and lecturers will be allocated assigned office space if they are working on campus 20+ hours/week. Staff may be allocated assigned office space if working on campus less than 20 hours/week.
   
   Due to wide variation in the need for workspace privacy to fulfill their role, units should use the university Workstyles and Workspace Fit Matrices to determine the type of office space that should be allocated to staff. https://pare.osu.edu/sites/default/files/office_space_standards.pdf
3. GTAs, GRAs, and graduate student fellows will be allocated desk space in shared graduate student offices. They may be allocated assigned desk space in graduate student offices if they are working on campus 20 or more hours/week.  
4. Undergraduate students should only be allocated unassigned desk space in shared open offices.
5. All EHE personnel will be allocated only one office space within EHE’s on-campus footprint.
6. Department chairs, unit directors, or their designees will be responsible for making office space location and type determinations for their faculty, staff, and students. Efforts should be made to choose an office space location within the unit’s existing office space footprint, and to cluster personnel within units/programs when possible.
7. Departments/units are responsible for general upkeep of all on-campus spaces allocated for their use. This includes cleaning outside the university’s custodial contract, furniture repairs, departmental/unit-initiated moves, and preparation of spaces for new occupants. Departments/units and their occupants will ensure that all items in workspaces are fire code compliant. No furniture should be removed from workspaces or procured/placed in workspaces without college approval.

College Research Space Policy

1. Research space within EHE is defined as:
   • Office workspaces specifically used for fulfillment of research aims
   • Office workspaces specifically used to house research journal operations
   • Any specialty space used to fulfill research aims, including wet labs, clinical labs, observation spaces, research kitchens, research collaboration space, research equipment use rooms, private data use rooms, research server storage rooms, and private data storage rooms
2. In consultation with each researcher, department and program chairs will be responsible for making research space determinations and decisions.
3. Efforts will be made by all parties to choose research space locations within the unit’s existing research space footprint and for researchers to share specialty research spaces wherever possible/allowable.
4. Department and program chairs will prioritize allocation of research space to support the work of early career faculty and funded research projects. Within funded research, the highest priority should be given to projects with full/high percentages of indirect costs/facilities and administrative costs (IDC/F&A) coming from funding agencies to The Ohio State University.
5. Due to the many variables surrounding research projects and space needs, no research space allocations will be considered permanent.
6. Department and program chairs are responsible for providing research space allocation information to EHE Facilities for record keeping and university auditing purposes.
7. Researchers should follow proper research document retention and storage policies. Once the timeline for retention has elapsed, physical research documents such as consent forms should be properly disposed of. Where possible, digital documents and storage methods should be utilized.
8. Researchers and their constituent department leaders are responsible for general upkeep of any research space their team is using. Additionally, they are responsible for oversight of lab safety, fire code compliance, and IRB-related compliance within their research team and spaces allocated for their use, and for ensuring that inspections and remediations are completed for any research spaces requiring these actions.
9. Researchers and their constituent department leaders are responsible for the continued operation of all pieces of research equipment, including maintenance, repairs, and replacement.
10. Researchers and their constituent department leaders are responsible for execution of research space close out procedures, including the relocation or disposal of all researcher-specific equipment and items.

General Space Responsibilities and Usage Guidelines:

Department and program chairs or their designees will contact EHE Facilities for guidance regarding any space infrastructure projects prior to beginning work, to request additional space to fulfill unit needs, to request additional research space to fulfill research that is anticipated to be funded, and for all other space-related questions.

EHE Facilities will serve as a liaison between the university’s facilities, space management, and public safety units and EHE and its constituent units. EHE Facilities will continue to perform annual space audits for internal records, communication, and budgeting purposes. EHE Facilities will consult with departmental and unit leaders about any university or college-initiated project or move that impacts that department’s/unit’s personnel. EHE Facilities, in conjunction with college and university leadership, will also manage larger space infrastructure projects within the EHE footprint. EHE Facilities will also work with departments, the college, and university space planning personnel to ensure that adequate specialty research space(s) exist(s) within EHE’s on-campus footprint to fulfill funded research projects and to support the potential needs of early career faculty.

Implementation and Annual Review of EHE Policy and Procedures Document:

College and departmental leadership will re-evaluate this document annually with EHE Facilities personnel. EHE Facilities personnel will incorporate feedback and re-circulate draft documents to department chairs and unit directors. Finalized proposals will be reviewed by college fiscal, faculty affairs, and the dean’s office for final approval.