The Facility Planning and Management Program at Cornell University, the first undergraduate program of its kind, is now the first such program in the world to be officially recognized by the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA).

After a rigorous review, the IFMA's task force, which has been working on setting standards for undergraduate programs for 10 years, gave Cornell its official stamp of approval in July. Five other colleges and universities have since received similar official recognition.

"This is similar to an accreditation but because it is an international program involving North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, the procedures and approvals process needed to be meaningful to other countries as well," said William Sims, professor of facility planning and management and chair of the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in which the FPMP is housed in the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell. Sims has served on both the IFMA task forces that developed curriculum objectives and the set of standards and procedures for recognition and the task force (now the Board) that developed and maintains the professional certification for facility managers. He continues to serve on the IFMA Recognition Board which includes representatives from the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

The FPMP, developed in 1980, is a "first professional degree" program, meaning that undergraduate students who complete the program have met all the educational requirements needed to qualify for the facility management certification exam after three years of job experience.

The Cornell program, one of the broadest based programs in this area in the world, consists of undergraduate courses in: facilities as physical buildings, including procedures for planning, programming, constructing, operating, maintaining and managing the facilities; real estate; business management to enable facilities to support an organization's objectives and to manage the facilities department, a large business unit; human environment relations, which includes an understanding of how facilities can enhance worker performance, productivity, welfare and satisfaction, as well as how to protect the environment; and research and analysis, to ensure that students, as facility managers, will be well-informed consumers of research-based knowledge. The program has 35 students.

Graduates of the program become senior executives for Fortune 500 companies, universities and major health-care organizations and management consulting firms.