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FPI Cohort Report FPI Cohort Reports California State University System T he California State University (CSU) system is the largest higher educational system in the United States. The system has physical assets valued at more than $20 billion (current replacement value) on the "State" side of the house alone. With more then 1,200 buildings, and 50 million square foot of mixed-use space, the CSU facility managers have an enormous responsibility, in addition to extremely high expectations from the stakeholders. This article will explain how the CSU facilities professionals and administrative staff use the APPA Facilities Performance Indicators (FPI) survey and report for decision making, forecasting, justification of funding levels, and quality improvement. Through years of using the FPI data as a system and refining the information to be ever more reliable, this information provides the basis for the best use of lean public funding. The CSU is one of the first state university system to establish its own group within the APPA FPI. Led by the Chancellors Office and several progressive campus facility leaders, the group is in its fifth year of participation. Every year, the outputs get better due to a number of factors. The CSU's facility managers/ system have developed a deep and ever growing understanding of, of their funding and staffing levels, how they relate to expectations for quality on each campus and the terminology used in the profession. At least once per year, the CSU group meets to 30 | july/august 2013 | Facilities Manager By Robert J. Quirk discuss the process, the need to clarify and/or refine terminology and look for best practices. The facility leaders ask others in their Carnegie class, in and out of the system, how they do what they do with certain funding levels. In conjunction with other system and campus information and nuances, they discuss strategies for meeting budget challenges, and quality improvement with the use of information and trends as articulated in various forms in the APPA FPI. The level of knowledge of each CSU campus facility executive and management team has grown over time with the use of this quality program. Data-Driven Support Having this type of information in facilities managers' "hip pocket" provides empirical data for an unlimited number of situations in which they find themselves. This information has been and is used to discuss productivity and quality outcomes with numerous constituencies: budget committees, policy level administrators, supervisors, managers, staff, and collective bargaining groups. Intuitively, the campus facilities organizations know they do a good job, but the FPI data provides an impartial tool to verify, if indeed, that we are meeting expectations within the funding and staffing levels provided. It equips facilities representatives with Continued on page 35