Data-driven strategies to support growth without new construction

This session reveals how Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is expanding enrollment capacity within tight budget constraints through strategic space optimization. Danielle Buttacavoli illustrates the role of data analytics in evaluating existing buildings using key metrics including facility condition, structural durability, and instructional demand to identify renovation versus replacement candidates. She profiles a case study of consolidating service groups into a unified center that streamlines student interactions while reducing operational footprints. She demonstrates the analysis of utilization patterns and enrollment projections to uncover underutilized spaces, and reposition them to increase instructional capacity at competitive costs per seat compared to new construction. She examines criteria for off-campus function relocation to free prime real estate for higher-priority activities, enabling enrollment growth through improved space utilization while supporting Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" mission in today's constrained fiscal environment.