One of the more troubling aspects of the academic life is the more corporate aspects it is taking on. The newest proposal is to assign space to departments based on a money formula - the cost of the space depends on the quality of the space and its purpose. If a Department needs more space it has to come out of their budget (already stretched by cuts in state funding). But how is a Department head going to handle the space of a faculty member who is between grants. Remove his space to save the Department money? Right now they will at least wait a while to see if the funding returns.