Facilities management was dealt yet another blow this year as the University continues to deal with budget cuts. Although the cuts have not been handed down every year, they have received budgetary reductions over the majority of the past six years. Given inflation, the University also has a yearly built-in reduction due to the falling value of money.
Facilities management took losses in particular areas.
“A number of maintenance positions, including building maintenance, housekeeping and grounds, were lost. And then we lost a lot of budget that normally would have gone for replacement of materials and supplies,” Jack Colby, assistant vice chancellor for facilities operations, said.
All of the positions lost were unfilled, though.
“All told there have probably been 45 positions or so that have been attributed to the cuts,” Colby said. “All of those were either vacancies or positions that had not been created.”
Vital services have been preserved, according to Colby.
“We think we have done a good job of looking at maintaining important services for the campus, but you can’t take these types of reductions year after year without expecting to see some of the impacts begin to show up. It’s not short-term — we don’t anticipate getting any of these moneys restored, so we are having to look at new ways of doing things,” Colby said.
Services will undoubtedly be diminished.
“It’s clear that we’re not going to be doing the same sorts of service levels that we used to do in the past,” Colby said.
Melissa Benner, a second year student in agricultural business, said she was satisfied with the overall state of on-campus cleanliness. She does not live on campus, but she spends a good deal of time going to classes.
“Everything seems clean. The biggest thing about anywhere you go is keeping the bathroom up, but other than that, everything is on par,” Benner said.
Kiara Harvey, a senior in zoology, also said the campus is tidy.
“I spend most of my time on-campus in the library. It is usually clean, but if these cuts result in the library being dirty, I would certainly spend less time on campus,” Harvey said.
Katie Strickland, a sophomore in elementary education, does maintenance work for the facilities operations department in Witherspoon Student Center. She has been doing the work for “over a year.”
“I have seen more deadlines recently. There are projects that have to be done in a certain amount of time. I believe it has something to do with all of the construction going on around campus, but it could be due to budget cuts,” Strickland said.
Facilities operations is also responsible for maintaining air temperature across campus, according to Strickland. Besides checking thermostats, she spends her time painting rooms in the student center.
“I haven’t noticed anything in particular that would indicate we have a smaller budget. We keep a record of how much we spend,” Strickland said.
Strickland said she does not usually keep track of spending herself, and therefore could not comment on how much spending goes into Witherspoon in particular.
