97% Occupied, 38% Filled: Inside Texas State's Space Data Story

Texas State University's buildings were 97% occupied.

Only 38% were actually filled.

That gap — uncovered in a four-building pilot with CampusIQ — reshaped how one of the fastest-growing universities in Texas thinks about space, strategy, and the path to R1 classification.

"Course schedules said our buildings were full. Wi-Fi data said they weren't."— Andrea Tutoki, Assistant Director of Facilities Resources, Texas State University

A University Without Brakes

Andrea Tutoki didn't ask to own space management at Texas State University. It was added to her responsibilities.

At the time, Texas State was accelerating fast:

• 44,000+ students across San Marcos and Round Rock campuses
• 8.7 million gross square feet under management
• 240+ buildings across two distinct operational environments
• 10 new doctoral programs announced as part of the R1 pursuit strategy
• R1 classification metrics achieved, with formal validation due in 2027
• A new STEM building under construction

The Provost needed answers about faculty space. Fast.

"We had a black hole," Andrea said. "We didn't know where people are, when, peaks and valleys — none of it."

Start With a Question, Not a Technology

Texas State didn't go shopping for software. What Andrea needed wasn't a tool — it was a partner who could accelerate her team's expertise while delivering operational wins.

Strategic discussions between Texas State and CampusIQ began in late 2023, spurred by CIO Matt Hall, who had seen CampusIQ prove out occupancy analytics at scale at the University of Central Florida. The path was set: leverage the university's existing Wi-Fi infrastructure — roughly 3,400 access points at the time — to build occupancy insights, then scale alongside the institution's planned Wi-Fi 7 rollout.

Andrea's team selected four buildings for the pilot, each representing a different slice of campus life:

• Alkek Library — a high-traffic, modernized learning commons
• Derrick Hall — home to most classrooms on campus, slated for partial demolition
• McCoy College of Business — dense, with 20+ instructional spaces
• JC Kellam — administrative offices with an entirely different usage pattern

Total pilot scope: approximately 740,000 gross square feet. Kickoff included more than 11 stakeholders spanning IT, Facilities, InfoSec, and the university's PMO.

The Gap Between Occupied and Filled

Within 30 days of contract execution, a floor-level dashboard was live. By December 2025, full customized dashboards were delivered. By February 2026, initial findings went to Texas State's leadership group.

The headline from the pilot:

• 97% occupied. Only 38% capacity filled.
• 16,491 daily user sessions. 13,307 unique individuals per day.
• 3,235 people present at any typical moment across the four pilot buildings.

Each building revealed a distinct profile:

• Derrick Hall — the workhorse. Smallest footprint, highest intensity — 18.24 people-minutes per square foot.
• McCoy College of Business — dense and driven. The most intensely used per square foot.
• Alkek Library — high traffic, low intensity. People pass through, not settle in.
• JC Kellam Admin — almost always occupied. Half full.

Andrea's read: "Our buildings aren't empty. They're busy — but oversized for how they're actually used."

Planning Around People, Not Schedules

That single insight shifted Texas State's planning posture.

The team stopped planning around course schedules and started planning around actual occupancy. The gap between the two — between occupied (any presence at all) and filled (approaching design capacity) — is where the opportunity lives.

For Texas State, it meant:

• Office space that could be reallocated for new hires without new construction
• Conference rooms identified as underused and potentially convertible to classrooms or offices
• HVAC and operational schedules aligned to when people are actually in the building
• A data informed path to capacity modeling across 8.7 million gross square feet

By March 2026, Andrea's team was exploring office usage to identify underused spaces and reallocate them for new hires. The pilot had become institutional strategy.

The Puzzle Game

Texas State is mid-transformation. A new STEM building is coming online, which will partially vacate existing buildings. Sequential renovation of campus quad buildings will follow — each move requiring occupant relocation after relocation.

Andrea calls it the "puzzle game." Without data, it is pure guesswork. With data, she can model capacity absorption across the entire campus.

Layered on top of that, Texas State is deploying Wi-Fi 7 infrastructure: 1,540 new access points at 2.5 to 3 times current density — granular enough to monitor individual conference rooms.

"Symbiotic. We feed each other."— CTO Ben Rogers, Texas State University, on the relationship between Wi-Fi 7 and space analytics

The campus master plan update is coming due. The data will inform it.

What Andrea Would Tell Her Peers

For facilities leaders considering a similar path, Andrea offered four pieces of advice:

1. You don't need to be an expert first. You need the right partner and institutional alignment. The expertise develops alongside the work.
2. Start with a question, not a technology. What decision do you need data for? That question drives the right tool selection — not the other way around.
3. Build cross-functional coalitions early. IT, Facilities, and Academic Affairs all benefit from this data. Bring them in before you have the answers.
4. Let the data challenge your assumptions. Be willing to find things you didn't expect. A lean team with the right partner can move faster than a large team building expertise internally.

"More planning for the future instead of being reactive" is how Andrea describes what this work has made possible.

That's what data informed space planning looks like — not a single project with an end date, but a long-term partnership that evolves as the institution's needs grow.