Current problems and trends in facility planning for health, physical education, recreation and athletics at colleges and universities.

Abstract

This study investigated the need for contemporary and comprehensive planning concepts to be used when designing facilities used for health, physical education, recreation, and athletic programs. A questionnaire was developed to survey each of three groups: campus planners, facility directors, and architects. A total of 94 campus planners, facility directors, and architects responded to the survey. The conclusions revealed that: (1) Institutions rely too heavily on the architect during the early stages of planning. (2) All three groups agree that preventive maintenance is a good concept; however, they do not believe it is a major consideration for facility planning. (3) All three groups highly agree that the concept of multi-purpose recreational centers is a beneficial financial trend used by colleges to centralize activities and maximize usage. (4) All three groups were reluctant to express preventive maintenance as a way to decrease a facility director's liability in management. (5) All three groups agree that technology should be acknowledged in facility planning, but they do not believe it is important enough to change financial methodology.

Recommendations were made to include that institutional planning committees need to be more knowledgeable concerning educational specifications, and this concept should be compared to the amount of facilities designed incorrectly. Financial methodology in facility planning must become more innovative, and multi-purpose centers are the most beneficial trend studied in this survey. Preventive maintenance should be implemented more comprehensively in facility planning. Future research is needed in all of these areas.