Capital Planning: Discussion from Bob Waddle’s Presentation

There were many interesting takeaways from Mr. Waddle’s presentation about BGSU’s capital planning and investments. Some of the specific needs were estimating “counts”, which are population of students potentially using the facility or in a given area versus the necessary space required to sustain those individuals. I always thought being creative would be an important factor in designing facilities but according to Mr. Waddle “DO NOT DESIGN”, but hire a professional firm to take your needs and run with the development of blueprints to meet those demands. These professionals understand what a certain facility can do for a university and how to save the organization money in the initial development. It was also interesting how competitive the bidding process was for hiring the right architects and builders for the project is. It makes since to be very selective since you will have to work with these individuals for usually a couple of years.

BGSU is building new residence halls, a common thing to consider also in a large city where populations increase. This is an interesting condominium building just finished in NYC.
Link:
http://blog.modernica.net/?p=13941

This next link is to a new facility built at the University of Bath which is very environmentally friendly and meets needs of students and faculty:
Link:

Risk Management and Negligence

In the Steinbach article, I feel it is the entity that is the driving force of such negligence. A governing body in the track and field world needs to reevaluate the regulations of equipment and overall level of danger of each of the events. Distance from one event to the next also needs to be examined. While reading the article, I thought about all of the other competitive sports that exist in the world and how relatively new they are compared to some of the events in track and field, which have been around since the roman empire days. Is it possible that a sport or competitive event could be considered outdated all together? It might be considered too ancient of a past-time that contains a danger level that some could consider to be barbaric in nature. The duty of these schools are to protect their students. The act of reasonable care is provided by the school but it has limitations. Students are usually under the age of 18 and are allowed to compete using a waiver from their parents. This decision to let their son or daughter compete could be a question of ethics on the part of all three parties involved, the school, parents, and student minor athlete.

As mentioned in chapter 2 of the text and in this article, many of the accidents occurred due to lack of improper supervision. Clear and open fields of play need to be required so that judges, parents, and officials can easily keep spectators and themselves out of harms way during events. You want to use the minimum amount of employees as possible for supervision while maximizing the amount of safety for the athletes themselves. Also proper signage as mentioned in chapter 7 are important for informing spectators and other athletes in the area of regions of the facility they cannot go, whether these regions of increased danger may be temporary or more permanent.

ADA Examples of BGSU Designs for Inclusion

Positive Examples of Designing for Inclusion (BGSU Campus)
1. Our classroom having accessible chair and table for handicapped to attend class.
2. Most of the older educational halls have ramp access to buildings entrance.
3. All water fountains on campus for the most part have different heights for access.
4. Most lots on campus have spots designated for handicapped parking.
5. Newer buildings on campus have drop off zones by vehicle with the proper space to drop off a handicapped student.
6. Multiple locations on campus have sloped sidewalk access to street for wheelchairs.
7. All ramps on campus have a gentle slope up so that wheelchair operator can approach with their own strength.
8. Railings for both ramps and stairs are in all locations on campus.
9. Dimensions and height of buttons on elevators in Union are large enough and low enough to be reached by handicapped.
10. All restrooms on campus are designed to include a handicapped stall.

Negative Examples of Designing for Inclusion (BGSU Campus)
1. Men’s restroom in Human Education Building is so small that a wheel chair cannot easily fit through the doorway. They later built another Men’s room right across the hall.
2. Wheelchair ramp design at library is out of the way and takes longer for handicapped to get down to entrance.
3. Business Administration Building only has one set of elevators on one side of the building. Overcrowding is possible.
4. Many buildings do not have direct street access so that handicapped cannot be dropped off directly at destination.
5. Stairs in some buildings such as human education building do not protect blind individuals from cross traffic while having a protected shade area.
6. Sidewalks do not take direct routes to destinations such as the man made path in front of the Union and behind Anderson Arena.
7. Being as flat as Bowling Green is, many areas on campus flood easily being lower than the water table. This is often true behind the recreation center. No prevention for handicapped with inclement weather.
8. How easy is the access to on campus transportation for those who require it due to handicap.
9.
10.Could not think of two others

Links:

www.ada.gov/?v=t (Official Website for Americans Disabilities Act)