"My thumb got me into this!" declares the new APPA President Mary Vosevich when asked how she entered the field of educational facilities management. It was 1984, and Vosevich, a Midwest native, was working at Monsanto in St. Louis as a research biologist, having earned her B.S. in horticulture/agriculture from the University of…

For facilities managers, deferred capital renewal (DCR) is the issue that, in many ways, can play the role of spoiler for other programs and initiatives are that important to their campuses. In particular, operations and maintenance programs, campus growth strategies, and even sustainability programs can suffer setbacks caused by the unplanned…

Some days seem like bouts in an endless game of tug-of-war. At one end of the rope, facilities professionals must do more--tackle deferred maintenance, develop a climate strategy, and meet the energy and operational needs for a complex mix of building types and stakeholders. Tugging on the other end are the obstacles of less money, staff, and…

Being environmentally responsible is a hot topic and critical issue. Many in the scientific community estimate we are slowly destroying the Earth's climate and landscape as we know it today. However, not all scientists agree with this theory, as a significant number of people have been environmentally responsible for a long time, recognizing…

Founded in 1889, Slippery Rock University (SRU) is a state university with 8,500 students and 400 faculty. Facilities and planning (F&P) employs 178 staff, of which 50 are custodians. F&P is responsible for the maintenance of 560 acres and 60 major buildings that comprise approximately 2.3 million gross square feet. Currently work is…

Discusses maintenance business plans, statements which provide accountability for facilities maintenance organizations' considerable budgets. Discusses the plan's components: statement of plan objectives, macro and detailed description of the facility assets, maintenance function descriptions, description of key performance indicators, milestone…

Describes how Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, successfully reversed a 15-year contract management arrangement for custodial services and built its own in-house management team. The article describes and presents results of the university's task-development workshop. (GR)

Explores the role of the uniform for custodian and maintenance employees and presents e-mail responses to questions concerning the wisdom of using uniforms, whether to purchase or rent them, and the influence of weather on changing uniform requirements. (GR)

Reviews the facility stewardship of each of the seven state universities belonging to the University System of Maine. Focus is on successful and often creative facility management when confronted with limited budgets. (GR)

Details the process of reengineering Miami-Dade Community College's maintenance department to lower costs while increasing services. Changes included work flow, communications, purchasing, staffing, and technology methods. (EV)

Discusses a step-by-step process for building a cleaning services mission statement that can help guarantee that the service performance meets an organization's expectations and needs. The importance of communicating what quality level is expected, developing standards and corresponding labor models and work assignments, and validating the process…

Discusses the communication difficulties between educational-facility housing managers and plant management and ways to improve it so that maintenance problems can be resolved. Examples of successful housing and facility-management partnerships are highlighted. (GR)

Discusses school preventive maintenance and the variables associated with maintenance staffing standards that address a zero-based budgeting environment. Explores preventive-maintenance measurement for staffing requirements, defines staffing levels and job descriptions, and outlines the factors to consider when creating a maintenance program and…

Explores the challenges facing college and university residence hall facility managers and how different schools address these issues in diverse ways. Ongoing concerns involving funding needs and maintenance are examined followed by discussions on the new challenges in managing student life, health, and safety. Concluding comments reveal where…

Describes a facilities-management software program that helps managers better document and understand maintenance backlogs, improvements, and future cyclic renewal needs. Major software components are examined including a software tool that filters, groups, and ranks projects to help determine funding requests. (GR)