The value of contractual terms in office leases

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 41).This paper uses a comprehensive data set to develop a hedonic model of office rent that estimates values of contractual terms such as tenant improvement allowances, leasing commissions, and options. The model includes variables to control for building characteristics and market conditions, as well as basic lease terms. Although other studies have used a similar approach, the prior work in this area was limited by the lack of data regarding contractual terms. The results show that there is a consistent, upward-sloping, convex term structure of rent. Furthermore, there is an insignificant "size premium" but the "proportion discount" is significant. In general, other variables, such as location variables and qualitative variables behave as expected, with the exception of the expense type dummy variables. Tenant improvement allowances and leasing commissions paid by the landlord do not have a predictable impact on rent at low levels. But high levels of allowances and commissions result in significant rent premiums. These results indicate that lower levels of allowances and commissions may be expected by the market. At higher levels, however, these contractual terms are clearly priced into rent levels.(cont.) Renewal options appear to have positive impacts in some years and negative impacts in other years. Renewal options may represent amenities that are granted to tenants as inducements in weaker leasing markets but are priced in stronger markets. Termination options and rights of first offer/refusal appear to have negative impacts on rent that are somewhat consistent in all years. This is counterintuitive because these options are thought to benefit the tenant. One explanation is that these options are in fact beneficial to the landlord. Further study is necessary to understand the value of these options. Overall, more information about options terms would be beneficial. Information such as the renewal rent, the termination fee, and the size of the offer/refusal space would help us to understand the economic arrangement between the parties and to predict the corresponding impact on rent.by Kevin T. Sheehan.S.M

Education Interrupted: The Growing Use of Suspensions in New York City's Public Schools

The New York Civil Liberties Union analyzed 10 years of discipline data from New York City schools, and found that:*The total number of suspensions in New York City grew at an alarming rate over the last decade: One out of every 14 students was suspended in 2008-2009; in 1999-2000 it was one in 25. In 2008-2009, this added up to more than 73,000 suspensions.*Students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities.*Black students, who comprise 33 percent of the student body, served 53 percent of suspensions over the past 10 years. *Black students with disabilities represent more than 50 percent of suspended students with disabilities.*Black students also served longer suspensions on average and were more likely to be suspended for subjective misconduct, like profanity and insubordination.*Suspensions are becoming longer: More than 20 percent of suspensions lasted more than one week in 2008-2009, compared to 14 percent in 1999-2000. The average length of a long-term suspension is five weeks (25 school days).*Between 2001 and 2010, the number of infractions listed in the schools' Discipline Code increased by 49 percent. During that same period, the number of zero tolerance infractions, which mandate a suspension regardless of the individual facts of the incident, increased by 200 percent.*Thirty percent of suspensions occur during March and June of each school year

Leveraging Epidemiology to Improve Risk Assessment.

The field of environmental public health is at an important crossroad. Our current biomonitoring efforts document widespread exposure to a host of chemicals for which toxicity information is lacking. At the same time, advances in the fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, genetics and epigenetics are yielding volumes of data at a rapid pace. Our ability to detect chemicals in biological and environmental media has far outpaced our ability to interpret their health relevance, and as a result, the environmental risk paradigm, in its current state, is antiquated and ill-equipped to make the best use of these new data. In light of new scientific developments and the pressing need to characterize the public health burdens of chemicals, it is imperative to reinvigorate the use of environmental epidemiology in chemical risk assessment. Two case studies of chemical assessments from the Environmental Protection Agency Integrated Risk Information System database are presented to illustrate opportunities where epidemiologic data could have been used in place of experimental animal data in dose-response assessment, or where different approaches, techniques, or studies could have been employed to better utilize existing epidemiologic evidence. Based on the case studies and what can be learned from recent scientific advances and improved approaches to utilizing human data for dose-response estimation, recommendations are provided for the disciplines of epidemiology and risk assessment for enhancing the role of epidemiologic data in hazard identification and dose-response assessment

Strengthening Uganda's policy environment for investing in university development

The authors examine the policy environment for investment in university development in Uganda, with special attention to the needs of Makerere University. They present data on the structure and financing of higher education, which gets a high priority in government educational spending. A second public university and new private universities have been established since 1986, but Makerere accounts for most university enrollment and government spending on higher education and it trains most of the country's high-level professional and technical manpower. Its revitalization after many years of neglect is central to government and donor plans for investment in human resource development. The authors emphasize how continuing austerity affects staff retention and staff engagement in academic work, as well as the quality of programs Makerere offers. They present a strategy for university development that involves establishing policy structures to: guide and coordinate investments in higher education as a whole; facilitate the expansion of higher education and the development of diploma-granting institutions to accommodate increasing social demand; and promote cost-saving and revenue-generating activities in the public universities - which would require giving them more autonomy in matters affecting their cost structure and budgeting. Among specific actions they recommend: making better use of public university assets by developing night courses, part-time degree and non-degree programs, and contract training and other income-generating activities; investigating possibilities for better use of university farms and other properties; making more use of existing capacity in public institutions and increasing the capacity of the newly established private universities; strengthening secondary education in science subjects and encouraging more women to study science and technology; coordinating future donor investments so they address the broad needs of Makerere and other universities; and raising incomes of academic and nonacademic university staff members.Teaching and Learning,Curriculum&Instruction,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education,Primary Education

Anomalous CO2 Ice Toward HOPS-68: A Tracer of Protostellar Feedback

We report the detection of a unique CO2 ice band toward the deeply embedded, low-mass protostar HOPS-68. Our spectrum, obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals a 15.2 micron CO2 ice bending mode profile that cannot modeled with the same ice structure typically found toward other protostars. We develop a modified CO2 ice profile decomposition, including the addition of new high-quality laboratory spectra of pure, crystalline CO2 ice. Using this model, we find that 87-92% of the CO2 is sequestered as spherical, CO2-rich mantles, while typical interstellar ices show evidence of irregularly-shaped, hydrogen-rich mantles. We propose that (1) the nearly complete absence of unprocessed ices along the line-of-sight is due to the flattened envelope structure of HOPS-68, which lacks cold absorbing material in its outer envelope, and possesses an extreme concentration of material within its inner (10 AU) envelope region and (2) an energetic event led to the evaporation of inner envelope ices, followed by cooling and re-condensation, explaining the sequestration of spherical, CO2 ice mantles in a hydrogen-poor mixture. The mechanism responsible for the sublimation could be either a transient accretion event or shocks in the interaction region between the protostellar outflow and envelope. The proposed scenario is consistent with the rarity of the observed CO2 ice profile, the formation of nearly pure CO2 ice, and the production of spherical ice mantles. HOPS-68 may therefore provide a unique window into the protostellar feedback process, as outflows and heating shape the physical and chemical structure of protostellar envelopes and molecular clouds.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, 2013 February 15: 14 pages, 9 figures, 3 table