Bill Beekman, Michigan State University vice president and director of athletics, welcomes Barb Kranz to MSU Today. Kranz is the director of Facilities Planning and Space Management at MSU and a person who many people at outside the university may not be familiar with. “But I can assure you that everybody inside the university knows Barb's name because she's the point person on all issues related to space, and space is a very critical issue at a university,” Beekman says.

Facilities Planning & Space Management is responsible for Capital and Space Planning and Space Administration for the university, aligning space and physical resources with strategic vision to support MSU’s core mission of teaching/learning, research, and outreach.

“People need places to work, says Kranz. “We need to make sure we have classrooms for our students and other instructional spaces. We collaborate with Residential and Hospitality Services and Athletics. We look for ways to coordinate and leverage our space, financial and human resources. As we bring people together with our facility resources, we have policies, protocols, and procedures that we develop to help ensure our space resources are used the best they can be.”

Kranz talks about the depth and breadth of research MSU faculty are involved in and what goes into finding faculty appropriate research space. She describes the new STEM building under construction on campus, too.

Kranz has quite possibly set foot in every room on campus during her career and says her favorite locations are the lobbies at the Auditorium Building, both on the main auditorium side and on the Fairchild Theater side. “The North Kedzie lobby is also very beautiful as well. I would say those are three of my favorite spots of all of our spaces on campus.”

MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on 105.1 FM, AM 870, and your smart speaker.