Lawrence Biemiller recently opened a HUGE can of worms in the Chronicle of Higher Education when he asked whether all faculty members really need private offices (article). At 92 comments and counting, the overwhelming majority of faculty members responding are vehemently opposed. They cite need for confidential discussions with students, inability to work in a communal environment, and challenges to status (“when administrators do it, I will”) among other reasons.
Even though I am a campus planner who works in an open, collaborative environment, I think the faculty have a point. I have not worked with a campus that has shared offices, except for adjuncts and grad students. Many of the comments about Biemiller’s article talk about this arrangement as expected, but not desirable. Office do take up a lot of space: at a small liberal arts school, offices can make up 20-25% of the non-residential space (10-15% at research-intensive universities), but these are not all faculty offices. The ever-growing administrative ranks occupy a fair amount of space. Of course there are administrative units that do not allocate private offices to everyone (IT, accounting and the Registrar’s office come to mind), and there are those faculty with more than one office
Most new models for faculty offices provide more space, not less. For example, in an academic building Shepley is designing for a college in New England, faculty offices are connected to small rooms for meeting with students. These rooms can be closed off from the private office for use by students as group study spaces in off hours.
Biemiller suggests that a nicely furnished departmental commons space might serve to meet faculty needs, with some private meeting rooms thrown in. Many of the faculty members who reacted suggest that this space be provided in addition to private offices, to encourage collegiality. I would not agree if such a space was available only to faculty. A departmental commons must serve as the place of shared scholarship for all in the discipline – staff, students, grad students – as well as faculty. Many faculty isolate in their offices – they don’t need another place to isolate.
Annie Newman is an Associate Principal at Shepley Bulfinch, where she directs the firm’s planning practice.
