Fayetteville Policies and Procedures  726.0 

Space Standards Guidelines

The University of Arkansas space standards are to be used for suggesting appropriate room sizes, for recommending space needs of departments, and for space use evaluations. These space standards should be used as guidelines when developing new facilities, renovating existing facilities, and changing a room's use. The standards are the maximum assignable square feet to be used. The campus should use these standards where possible. However, they are meant to be guidelines and it is understood that they may not be applicable in all space development. (Please note that classrooms and laboratory square footage will include aisles for general circulation of the room's occupants.)

While the standards do provide individual room size suggestions for offices, the Office Complex Space standards should be used when developing a department's office space. The Office Complex Space standard allows flexibility and considers all the department's office space. Graduate students' space is classified as research space and is not part of the department's office space.

Teaching Laboratories

The Teaching Laboratories standards apply to Upper and Lower division teaching laboratories. The assignable square feet per station includes circulation and support space for the occupants.

Discipline ASF Per Station
Administration 40
Agricultural Biological Services 75
Agricultural Economics 40
Agricultural Science 60
Anthropology 60
Architecture 75
Arts, Visual 90
Biological Services 75
Computer Science 50
Education 40
Engineering Sciences 90
Engineering, Agricultural 90 
Engineering, Chemical 90
Engineering, Industrial 90
Engineering, Mechanical 90
English 40
Foreign Languages 40
Geography 60
International Relations 40
Journalism 40
Law 40
Library Sciences 40
Mathematical Sciences 40
Physical Science 90
Psychology 50
Social Ecology 75
Social Sciences, General 40
Social Welfare 40
 Speech 75
Studies, Applied Behavioral 40
Studies, Creative 40
Studies, Environmental 40
Studies, Interdiscipline 40

 

Research Laboratory Space

The Research Laboratory standards are to be used to determine the departmental space needs for research laboratories. While the standards may provide a guideline for individual labs, the needs of some labs may vary from the suggested size.

Space is to be allowed for each faculty member and graduate students. The Graduate Student category space should allow for the following: each 50% FTE graduate student, each postdoctoral fellow, and each 100% FTE professional support staff. (The support staff would need to be classified as a 38, 39, or 40 by the Human Resources EEO Occupation codes.) This allocation practice reclassifies graduate students' offices as research space. The standards include support space.

 Discipline ASF per Faculty ASF per Graduate Student 
Administration 50 50
Agricultural Biological Services 500 250
Agricultural Economics 50 50
Agricultural Science 350 175
Anthropology  150 100
Architecture 150 150 
Arts, Performing 150 150
Arts, Visual 500 250
Biological Services 500 250
Computer Science 150 100
Education 50 50
Engineering Sciences 350 175
Engineering, Agricultural 500 250
Engineering, Chemical 500 250
Engineering, Industrial 500 250
Engineering, Mechanical 500 250
English 50 50
Foreign Languages  50 50
Geography 150 100
International Relations 50 50
Journalism 50 50 
Law  50 50
Library Sciences 50 50
Mathematical Sciences 50 50
Physical Science 500 250
Psychology 150 100
Social Ecology 150 100
Social Sciences 50 50 
Social Welfare 50 50
Speech 150 100
Studies. Applied Behavioral 50 50
Studies, Creative 50 50
Studies, Environmental 150 100
Studies, Interdisciplinary 50 50

 

General Purpose Classrooms

Size of Room Guidelines
150 sq.ft. - 250 sq.ft. 33 sq.ft. per station
250 sq.ft. - 350 sq.ft. 20 sq.ft. per station
350 sq.ft. - 45 sq.ft. 16 sq.ft. per station
450 sq.ft. - 700 sq.ft. 15 sq.ft. per station
700 sq.ft. - up 13 sq.ft. per station

Fixed seating should use 11 square feet per station. Seminar rooms or classrooms with tables and chairs should use 20 square feet per station. A class lab that is used for drafting purposes should use 65 square feet per station.

 

Computer Laboratories and Computer Class Laboratories

30 square feet per station

General Office Rooms

Classification Guideline
Academic/Non Academic Department Head 180 sq.ft. per room
Standard Office (including faculty) 135 sq.ft. per room
Graduate Assistant 60 sq.ft. per area/station
Clerical/Technical Support 90 sq. ft. per area/station

Conference Rooms

Room Size Guideline
6 person room 160 sq. ft.
10 person room 270 sq. ft.
15 person room 360 sq. ft.

Office Complex Space

Office complexes should have 195 square feet of assignable space for each full-time employee who is to occupy an office. This would include full-time-equivalent faculty, full-time-equivalent teaching assistants (includes lecturers/instructors), full-time equivalent postdoctoral fellows, and full-time-equivalent administrative staff. Human Resources" EEO Occupation Codes of 38,39, or 40 should be used to determine who is counted. Employees with codes of 41-44 would be considered support and would not be counted.

This standard is a simple way to determine space needs and allows flexibility in developing an office complex. The total area generated by this standard can be divided into offices, support staff areas/stations, storage, and general purpose work areas such as copy rooms. Each particular group can design the office area to fit their needs. This guideline is for all disciplines and administrative offices. The following example illustrates the flexibility of this type of policy:

A department with six faculty members should have 1,170 (195x6) assignable square feet. The area could be divided as follows:

One 180 sq.ft. office 180 sq.ft.
Five 140 sq.ft. office 700 sq.ft.
Two 50 sq.ft. office 100 sq.ft.
One 190 sq.ft. copy/work area 190 sq.ft.
Total 1,170 sq.ft.

Or, the department might need to divide the area as follows:

Six 120 sq.ft. offices 720 sq.ft.
Two 90 sq.ft. support/help areas 180 sq.ft.
One 100 sq.ft. storage/copy area 100 sq.ft.
One 170 sq.ft. conference/work area 170 sq.ft.
Total 1,170 sq.ft.

Building Area Guidelines

All facilities have usable areas within the facility which are not assignable for the functions listed above. Some of these are circulation areas for the facility, building service areas, and mechanical rooms. In addition, the facility will contain some structural areas which are not assignable but are included in the gross square feet. The guideline for percentage of assignable square feet of a facility should not be less than 65% of the gross square feet.

Reformatted for Web April 23, 2014
May 13, 1993