When walking through campus or meandering down a corridor, students may notice but ultimately dismiss any irregularities in buildings or dangerous cracks in the sidewalk.
Luckily, a group of faculty and staff are accountable for the well- being of facilities on behalf of students and the University.
On top of their jobs as staff members, the University’s building coordinators volunteer to take on extra responsibilities in their departments to ensure their buildings — and everything within them — stays safe and runs smoothly.
Streamlining quarterly building inspection reports and additional landscaping work were among the upcoming projects presented at last week’s quarterly building coordinators meeting.
The building coordinator meetings are an opportunity for various campus departments to communicate about how to make campus operate more safely and efficiently, as well as for departments to receive essential feedback from the firsthand users of on-campus facilities.
Michael Hooks, assistant director for Environmental Health and Safety, said his department teamed up with Facility Services to present to the 70 building coordinators in attendance the new online process developed to streamline the quarterly inspections of buildings required by the state Office of Risk Management.
The University’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety is required by the state Office of Risk Management to complete building inspections regarding the conditions of the buildings, safety issues, fire protection and electrical safety.
Hooks said the online process was designed to help increase participation in the inspection on campus.
Fred Fellner, assistant director of landscape services, and Dennis Mitchell, assistant director of the University’s Department of Planning, Design and Construction, discussed various projects completed on campus as well as future landscape projects for students to look forward to.
“When you look back over the last five years, it is remarkable what we have accomplished,” Fellner said.
Just a few years ago, entire corridors like the one between Nicholson and Coates halls did not exist, Fellner said.
Other ongoing landscaping and design projects include adding trees in and around sidewalks, installing green screens around dumpsters and adding benches designed to create “intimate communication areas” all around campus to make areas more usable for students, Fellner said.
“For us, it is a gift,” Mitchell said. “We are very excited when we finish a project and see it being utilized.”
Building coordinators were also encouraged to be aware of trip hazards on campus resulting from drainage problems and sinking sidewalks and to call in work orders when they see them.
“However, if students see that, they can alert us to it, and I will make sure it gets to the right person,” Fellner said.
Tammy Millican, assistant director of Facility Services, said the building coordinators play an essential role in allowing Facility Services to manage the entire campus, by helping to do things like point out trip hazards or other safety concerns in buildings around campus.
“There is a lot of ugly still on this campus that we want to remove,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the goal of Facility Services’ landscaping and design work is not to put a bandage on the problems, but to do it right.
Looking forward, one area they are hoping to improve is the Enchanted Forest.
Mitchell said with the new residential community developing more heavily in the Hart Lot area, the goal is to make the necessary improvements in the sidewalks in and around the Enchanted Forest, making it a more comfortable place to be.
“The campus is for the students, and if we have all these building coordinators making it a safe and more beautiful campus, then we have a better and safer community,” Millican said.