Nestled into the heart of the athletic complexes down the hill is a building hidden from the majority of students’ eyes. This nondescript, single story construction is home to the facilities department, which is the source of the energy (both figuratively and literally) to make Colgate University run every day.
The facilities department maintains and repairs everything on campus. It is made up of around 150 employees in specific teams, including electricians, plumbers, HVAC, groundskeeping, custodial and heating plant workers. The teams maintain everything from student dorm rooms to the Lineberry Natatorium.
Jason Wallace, the director of facilities operations at Colgate, shared the motivation for the department.
“We want the campus to look wonderfully beautiful. That’s a real big vision and goal, and we also want to make sure that it’s as safe as possible,” Wallace shared. “Two days on the job are never the same. For the outdoor teams, the weather determines that day’s tasks. Recently, they have been tasked with snow clean-up, fixing storm drainage or picking up fallen branches in the transition from winter into spring. Once the grounds begin to dry more, the outdoor teams will begin to fix potholes among other seasonal tasks that spring brings. Indoor teams like the custodial staff do everything from dorm repairs to routine maintenance like delivering salt to water softeners.”
Groundskeeper Brice Button shared the seasonal changes of the job.
“It changes quite a bit season to season,” Button said. “The best way to explain it is that we do such a vast majority of things around here, from work orders, delivering packages, set-ups, tear-downs as well as the grounds maintenance.”
“You name it. And it’s every day. Every day is different,” added Wallace. “We look at it as trying to make the campus as nice as we can.”
Student interaction with the facilities department is often in the form of work orders. Work orders come through the front office of facilities and are processed. They then go to the right teams for the job so the work can get done efficiently and quickly.
The facilities building may seem nondescript, but it is full of constant movement. The front of the building is made up of administrative offices, and a hallway reaches back to a hub surrounded by workshops, the warehouse, storage, and the garage. The warehouse consists of a central receiving area where orders that are bigger than a post office box are received. It also stocks repair parts needed on campus, like pipes for the plumbers.
The teams are mobile. Individuals or pairs of employees have a van ready to go where they store parts from the warehouse for every repair. Wallace explained that they need to be mobilized since most of the work is done out of the facilities building on location around campus. The vans make up part of a fleet of around 75 vehicles, including tractors and lawn mowers. Fuel operations on campus go through facilities as well at a gas pump at the back of the building.
The heating plant behind Huntington Gymnasium is also run by facilities, and Wallace emphasized its key role.
“The heating plant is really the critical piece of the infrastructure for campus. Everything’s important, but that has a little bit higher importance,” Wallace said.
The heating plant uses a wood boiler to produce steam, which produces heat and hot water for campus buildings. It is extremely important for the dining halls, as heat is used for cooking and washing dishes. Wallace emphasized that functioning heating also becomes a food concern, so it is imperative to keep the plant running.
Eric Salsburg, a boiler operator and works at the plant and explained what his job entails.
“A lot of it is just maintaining the plant. There’s a lot of different tasks you have to do,” Salsburg shared. “We have softeners and you have to check the salt, sometimes you have to switch boilers over, occasionally you’ll have emergency situations where the power goes out and everything shuts off, but it’s pretty relaxed most of the time.”
The facilities department is present in almost every aspect of campus life. So the next time you admire the beautiful foliage, attend an event, get cozy in your warm dorm room or even enjoy a hot meal at Frank, remember the people behind Colgate who make everything run smoothly.
