Key takeaways
- Decades of deferred preventive maintenance can turn critical assets into institutional risks — not just maintenance issues.
- Using failure as a catalyst enables institutions to plan ahead, reduce future risk and make smarter capital decisions.
- Use real asset condition and lifecycle data to build credible budgets, justify investments and align facilities and finance leaders.
- Move beyond reactive maintenance by using predictive insights to prioritize capital spending, reduce risk and protect campus operations.
- Connect facilities data to financial strategy to support sustainability, operational continuity and long-range campus planning.
Aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance and tightening budgets are daily realities for higher education facilities leaders. When a critical asset fails after years of limited preventive maintenance, the impact can ripple far beyond facilities — disrupting campus operations, driving unplanned capital spend and creating significant reputational and leadership risk.
Let's explore how Loyola University New Orleans faced these challenges using a major facilities failure as a turning point for smarter planning, stronger risk management and better financial alignment.
When reactive maintenance becomes a risk
Many colleges and universities — public and private, large and small — still rely heavily on reactive maintenance. Assets are repaired when they break down, capital requests are based on estimates and future risk remains largely invisible until it surfaces as cost overruns, emergency funding requests or operational disruption.
Kyle Gregore, director of facilities at Loyola University New Orleans, shared how even the best plans can quickly unravel when an unexpected failure hits, and why that moment exposed deeper gaps in how facilities risk was understood institutionally.
Loyola’s experience revealed a critical gap common across higher education: without accurate asset condition and lifecycle data, facilities teams struggle to prioritize work, justify budgets or communicate risk to finance leaders.
A turning point already in motion
Importantly, the boiler failure did not happen in a vacuum.
At the time of the incident, Loyola was already in the process of implementing asset management software alongside asset investment planning (AIP) capabilities. While these efforts were underway, the failure became a powerful accelerant.
The crisis:
- Elevated facilities risk conversations to executive leadership
- Reinforced the urgency of moving beyond reactive maintenance
- Accelerated alignment between facilities, finance and administration
Rather than slowing progress, the event sped up adoption of data‑driven practices that were already being introduced.
From emergency reaction to proactive prevention
Instead of rebuilding the boiler and returning to business as usual, Loyola used the failure as a strategic inflection point. By leveraging asset management software and AIP data, the institution began shifting conversations from “What just broke?” to:
- Which assets pose the highest failure risk next?
- Where does preventive maintenance matter most?
- How can capital investments be prioritized using real condition and lifecycle data?
This shift enabled Loyola to move from emergency response toward forward‑looking planning, where asset health informs financial strategy — before failures occur.
For facilities leaders, this meant:
- Clear visibility into aging assets and risk exposure
- Data‑driven prioritization of maintenance and capital projects
- Stronger, more credible conversations with finance and executives
For finance teams, it meant capital planning grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
Planning ahead — and preventing the next crisis
The key takeaway from Loyola’s experience is that how institutions prepare for failures determine their outcome. With connected asset data, institutions can:
- Identify failing assets before they become crises
- Justify funding for preventive maintenance and renewal
- Reduce operational, financial and reputational risk
- Build long‑term capital plans that align with institutional goals
What began as a boiler failure ultimately helped Loyola strengthen its approach to campus planning — turning a moment of crisis into a foundation for confidence.
Learn how data-driven facilities planning builds campus confidence
Facilities failures don’t have to define your campus, but how you respond to them does. Rather than prescribing a one‑size‑fits‑all solution, the session offers a real‑world perspective on what worked, what changed and what facilities and finance leaders can realistically do next.
To learn how higher ed facilities and finance leaders can build a more resilient, future‑ready campus, explore our Asset Management Software for higher education.
