By Annabelle Blair | Echo
In January, the door of the women's restroom in Zondervan Library went missing for a few weeks; in February, the English laundry room flooded three times in one day; in March, chunks of roof shingles littered the ground around Wengatz Hall after particularly strong winds.
Most members of the Taylor community have witnessed or experienced some kind of campus maintenance need in the buildings they work, study or live in. In 2009, the American School and University conducted its most recent Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Colleges. According to this study, colleges budget an average of $1,303.75 per student per year for maintenance and operations.
Ron Sutherland, vice president for business administration, said the way he uses the term "maintenance" reflects a team of individuals and the process of fixing buildings. Taylor's Facility Services department includes maintenance, housekeeping and grounds teams. Facility Services is responsible for basic upkeep and long-term care of buildings and grounds.
The average colleges delegates 10 percent of its annual budget to maintenance and operations (a one percent drop from the year before), according to the 38th Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Colleges. In 2017, Taylor allocated approximately 9.4 percent of its total $62 million budget to campus facility and property maintenance.
According to Sutherland, there are three parts of Taylor's budget that deal with campus maintenance: a fund for basic building care, a fund for annual replacement and repair, and a fund for renovation.
How are funds distributed?
Basic maintenanceThis budget is located within the general maintenance budget, which includes supplies needed to complete repairs. According to Stephen Olson, vice president for finance and chief financial officer, approximately 75 percent of the Facility Services budget covers employees' wages and benefits, including student workers.
This budget includes:
Maintenance employees wages and benefits
Lightbulbs
Broken door locks
Leaky faucets
Torn carpets
Tools
Annual Replacement / Repair
This budget deals with immediate and preventative maintenance. Facility Service employees check the sidewalks and roads on Taylor's property every year for cracks and unsafe conditions. They also survey property needs to ensure safety protocols are maintained and buildings are operating as cost-effectively as possible.
This budget includes:
Sidewalk and road repair
Boiler replacement
Fire alarms
Building panels
Brick sealant
Capital Replacement
This budget mainly involves the major systems of a building: windows, roofs, envelopes (exterior walls), flooring, plumbing, electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning).
These systems age, requiring replacement or updates after periods of time. According to Sutherland, Taylor does not have the budget to replace a system just because it is outdated. Instead, Taylor's maintenance team analyzes aged building's systems to determine if they can continue to function or need to be replaced. Each building system is assessed annually on a case-by-case basis and replaced only if the maintenance team deems it necessary for operation.
This budget includes:
Bergwall Hall's renovation
Immediate and safety issues
Reade Center faculty offices renovation
Gerig Hall finish and plumbing
Annual repair list
This is an compilation of facility maintenance projects across campus. Some don't fit in the annual budget and are deferred to the following year. Other tasks on the list sometimes wait 2-4 years before the appropriate maintenance budget can accommodate it, according to Sutherland. The list is constantly being reorganized to prioritize tasks involving safety and immediate needs.
After the list is compiled and prioritized by the maintenance team, it is passed to Taylor's vice president to be reviewed by various departments. Since Student Development and academic and athletic departments utilize the most building space on campus, they generally give the largest input, according to Sutherland.
Bergwall Hall's renovation was on the list for a few years until it rose to the top last year, according to Sutherland. The renovation became a priority due to the multiple heating units that will need to be replaced every year, along with other system updates.
This list also includes:
Immediate and safety issues
Reade Center faculty offices renovation
Gerig Hall finish and plumbing
How are requests processed?
Sutherland said all students are encouraged to file a request through the myTAYLOR site if they notice a maintenance need anywhere on campus. In all-hall meetings, students are told to submit residence hall work requests through their personnel assistant (PA).An Echo reporter attempted to use the quick link on the myTAYLOR site to access the software program for submitting maintenance requests, but was denied access to the program without a "valid password." After contacting Greg Eley, facilities service director, the reporter was told to use the password, "password," in order to submit the request. Eley said all students can use this password to submit a request.
There are 13 maintenance workers and 30 buildings on campus, so most maintenance employees manage 2-3 buildings for preventative and ongoing maintenance. "That's not an excuse not to see (maintenance needs); it's just a reality of (them) going that quick to do their work," Sutherland said. "We'd love to have students, hall directors, employees telling us what they see that's not getting worked on because the more hands, the more help . . . in trying to get those things noticed."
