What the 2025 Space Utilization Index reveals about campus space performance and opportunity

Enrollment shifts, hybrid work adoption, and changing student behavior are rewriting the rules of campus space performance—but most institutions are still planning against assumptions that no longer hold. Nic Halverson presents findings from the 2025 Space Utilization Index, a full-year analysis of real occupancy patterns across 100+ North American colleges and universities, to reveal where persistent gaps between designed capacity and actual use signal opportunities for consolidation, repurposing, and smarter capital allocation. Drawing on utilization trends across classrooms, offices, study spaces, and shared amenities, he identifies what structural underutilization looks like versus seasonal fluctuation—and what the data says needs to change. He examines institutional examples illustrating how facilities teams are translating these benchmarks into actionable planning decisions.