ATLANTA — A two-year study by the University System of Georgia shows classrooms are empty during most of the week.
The Athens Banner-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/Zmx2x4 ) that of the 440 classrooms at the University of Georgia, the average is used just 18.5 hours per 40-hour work week. When the classrooms are used, just two-thirds of the seats are full. That is a 31 percent utilization rate.
At most schools, the results show capacity for additional courses and for some bigger classes, though higher education leaders say there are many factors to consider when analyzing the numbers.
Georgia Regents University's Summerville campus has 73 rooms. They average 27.2 hours per 40-hour work week of use, and they're usually half empty even when being used. That amounts to a 37 percent utilization rate, according to the study.
At the Health Sciences Center, there's a 28 percent utilization rate: The 26 rooms are used, on average, 13.4 hours per week and they're 82 percent full when used.
The highest overall use rate comes at Georgia Gwinnett College, at 77 percent. That's five times more than the lowest.
System administrators say each school in the system has individual characteristics that affect utilization, and that there's a limit to how crowded a classroom can be.
"While each of these campuses could increase its classroom utilization rate, each also has individual characteristics that affect the components of utilization (time and seat occupancy)," said Alan S. Travis, the system executive who oversaw the analysis.
For example, it could present logistical difficulties to use an empty physics classroom for a humanities lecture class for students who spend most of their time across campus. General-use lecture halls could never be used for labs. And every class simply can't be scheduled in the popular morning or early afternoon time slots.
Another factor is an increased use of online courses.
Still, system leaders say the study highlights ways to reduce costs. Administrators will use the data to help evaluate requests for more space. Renovation, better scheduling or changing the purpose of existing buildings will be options to new construction.
Chancellor Hank Huckaby called for the study in 2011.