Indiana University of Pennsylvania – Long Range Facilities Master Plan  

Indiana University of Pennsylvania serves about 8,500 students with more than 130 programs, and is known to be a highly personalized, well respected higher education option. A combination of external factors, including a decline in regional high-school graduation rates, led to a 10-year, 40-percent downturn in enrollment, leaving IUP with a significant spatial surplus. IUP leadership took bold steps to ensure the university’s success: selective building removal, reducing faculty and staff, and reconfiguring its colleges via the Provost-led Academic Restructuring Plan. As part of the Long Range Facilities Master Plan, SmithGroup evaluated the campus and its facilities, and developed a plan for aligning IUP’s physical resources with its future-focused academic vision.  

Together, the Academic Restructuring and the Long Range Facilities Master plan provide a proactive and responsible roadmap for IUP. The plan emphasizes the university’s strengths, consolidating and reorganizing its colleges for programmatic functionality and interdisciplinary collaboration. It also reallocated underutilized space to upgrade the student experience, establishing a student success center in the heart of campus co-locating traditional student services and academic support spaces. This solution created a new institutional front door developing spaces for student support and places to reinforce longstanding university traditions.   

A thorough facility condition study and space analysis evaluated each building’s age, condition, utilization and occupancy, reuse candidacy and anticipated capital renewal costs. Long Range Facilities Master Plan recommendations resulted in an overall space reduction of 15 percent, including the demolition of 10 buildings and the strategic addition of an interdisciplinary science and research building. Health science programs that had been scattered across the campus were consolidated into a cohesive cluster, strengthening the sciences and related allied health professions. While shedding excess facilities and their associated expenses, the plan retains space for strategic expansion. The Health Sciences cluster is positioned for growth to include a new College of Osteopathic Medicine to serve the medical needs of rural Pennsylvanians.   

It establishes a prominent hub of student services at the campus core, including a welcome center, coaching, career counseling and a home for student organizations. It enhances the cherished Oak Grove and adds new lawn and amphitheater, and student spaces to enhance campus life. 

Indiana University of Pennsylvania stands as a model of bold and innovative leadership in higher education. When faced with adversity, it created a plan that cultivates relevancy and resiliency by offering competitive programs, properly scaling campus facilities and a distinct student experience.