Definition of Terms

Commonly-Used Space Terms

  • Assignable Area (ASF)

  • Assignable square feet = the total floor or surface area of a room assigned to or available for assignment, including every type of space functionally usable by an occupant or user. For leased facilities, when actual assignable area measurements are unavailable, net rentable area may be used to record assignable area and basic gross area.

  • Basic Gross Area

  • The sum of all areas on all floors of a building which have floor surfaces, essentially space within the building envelope, as measured from the outside faces of exterior walls. It includes assignable and non-assignable (restrooms, mechanical and custodial rooms and public circulation) areas. It includes mezzanines, vertical circulation and mechanical and electrical shafts. It excludes free-standing columns or architectural and structural projections, basements or attics without floor surfaces and all areas open to the weather, such as uncovered porches or balconies.

  • Building

  • A roofed structure for permanent or temporary shelter of persons, animals, plants, materials, or equipment. The building inventory may encompass many different types of structures, including marine and space structures, research vessels; aquarium structures; and trailers that are not on wheels and are used for offices, research, residences and storage.

  • CAAN

  • Corporate Asset Account Number is a unique 4 or 5 digit number assigned by Capital Asset Accounting to a building or structure at the time a capital project or construction contract begins to incur expenses. 

  • CEFA

  • Corporate Equipment and Facilities Assets. The UC system-wide reports that combine data from all UC campuses.

  • Covered Unenclosed Gross Area

  • The sum of all covered or roofed areas of a building located outside of the enclosed structure; i.e., the environmentally controlled envelope, for all stories or areas which have floor surfaces. It includes covered, unenclosed corridors, walkways, porches, balconies, loading docks.

  • CPEC

  • California Post-Secondary Education Commission. This is the defunct State body that developed the space standards we currently use. Space standards have been used by planners and policy makers in California for higher education since the 1950s, and are generally thought of as budgeting tool to determine overall space allowances. The standards were revised in the 1990s.

  • CPEC Guidelines (aka Space Standards)

  • The UC Campuses report annually to the Office of the President - for its reporting to the California State Legislature - using California Post-Secondary Education Commission (CPEC) guidelines detailed in the Facilities Inventory Guide. These guidelines only apply to General Instruction and Research departments (approximately 20% of total space). These guidelines were intended to compare whole campuses. A method was needed to determine if requests for additional space (across the UC system) were realistic.

    CPEC guidelines use existing assigned standard space and compare it to an “allowed” amount of space per faculty member, grad student, post-graduate researcher and teaching assistant, which varies by research discipline.

  • Department (Space Department)

  • Department is more accurately called a “Space Department” or “Space Account”. Each Space Department has a program code that reflects the functions or activities that take place in that department, e.g., instruction and research, organized research, public service, academic support, student service, institutional operations. It also serves to separate programs with standard vs. non-standard space.  It should be noted that Space Departments are not necessarily the same as administrative units or departments with the same name. In some cases, a traditional academic department may have more than one Space Department.

  • FIG

  • Facilities Inventory Guide is the UC system-wide reference guide for all facilities. It provides coding structures and definitions. It has not been edited significantly since 1993.

  • General I&R Departments

  • General Instructional and Research (I&R) Departments are space departments with program codes beginning with 1.1 or 1.2. This distinction is used for many standardized reports submitted to the Office of the President.

  • Non-Assignable Area

    • Circulation = Sum of all areas on all floors of a building required for public physical access to some subdivision of space, whether or not physically bounded by partitions.

    • Custodial = Sum of all areas on all floors of a building used for custodial supplies, sink rooms, and janitorial closets.

    • Mechanical Area = Sum of all areas on all floors of a building designed to house mechanical equipment, utility and shaft areas, and all spaces housing utility services.

    • Public Toilet Area = Sum of all areas on all floors of a building devoted to nonassignable public toilet facilities.

  • Official Date of Record

  • This is the date on which the fall quarter inventory is based. It is fifteenth day of instruction during the fall quarter.

  • OGSF

  • Outside Gross square feet is calculated as Basic Gross Area + Covered Unenclosed Area. It is also known as OGSF100.

  • OGSF50

  • The California method of calculating Outside Gross Square Feet. This is defined as: Basic Gross Area plus one-half (1/2) of Covered Unenclosed area.

  • OMP

  • Operations and Maintenance of Plant (OMP). In general, the OMP funding eligibility of space in a building is determined by the eligibility status of the departments and activities occupying the building. The information on the Building record in FacilitiesLink is not sufficient to determine OMP eligibility. The best sources for information about OMP are the “B11” reports. Click on the Documents module and navigate to Documents/Annual Reports and Database Extracts/Fall 20XX. This report will also show if there is a special arrangement, such as the Garamendi Act.

  • Program Code

  • A code indicating the classification of a space department for the purpose of space inventory reporting. Example: 1.1.01.01 = Agricultural Business & Production. These codes are described in detail in the Facilities Inventory Guide. In general, academic departments are classified by subject field and non-academic units are classified by activity.

    A unit may have more than one space department if there are different activities taking place that require different program codes. For example, Dean’s Office and research/academic space).

  • Room Use Code

  • A code (e.g. 310-Academic Office) indicating the classification of a room based on the primary or predominant usage or activity which occurs in the room, rather than on the function or subject field served by the room. The room’s intent, design, type, name, or the equipment in the room, do not affect the room classification unless it is compatible with actual use.

    A list of codes can be found on the FacilitiesLink home page. The room use classification structure provides a framework of standardization and compatibility for comparisons across campuses.

  • Space Inventory

  • The annual space inventory is our campus’ official record of existing space and space assignments.  Each year campuses submit their inventory of facilities to the Office of the President, based on a snapshot taken on the fifteenth day of the fall quarter.  This snapshot is used as a basis for comparison to prior years and for future projections. The campus space database is fluid, with buildings added and subtracted throughout the year, so it is essential to have a consistent point of reference for analysis purposes.

  • Standard Space

  • A subset of campus space that is subject to comparison with the CPEC space standards. A “standard” program code is assigned to the space of instruction and research units. Non-standard programs include CAES pilots, health sciences, Organized Research Units (ORU), academic support, vivaria, operations, and outside agencies.

    A “standard” room use code is assigned to a room in which the typical activities of instruction and research (and their support) take place.

    Standard space, therefore, is a “standard” room use code within a “standard” program code.

  • Stations

  • The number of actual work stations which will adequately accommodate users in a particular room.

    Required only for:

    110 – Classroom

    130 – Seminar Room

    260 – Class Laboratory

    261 – Special Class Laboratory

    270 – Open Laboratory

    340 – Conference Room

    650 – Assembly

    810 – Patient Bedroom

    830 – Nurse’s Station

    852 – Treatment/Examination – Doctor

    860 – Diagnostic Service Laboratory

    9xx – (All residential Facilities, except service and bathroom area)