Dear Infrastructure and Sustainability team,
With the 2017-18 fiscal year complete, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you on a year filled with successes, and thank you for the vital work you do to support the university’s mission of education and research.
I could fill the internet listing all of the great things accomplished by you all over the past year, but some highlights include:
- Our Trades Services team completed a staggering 43,499 work orders. And they met the due date for 86 percent of all service requests, a metric that’s improved by 6 percent since FY 2015.
- Each of our 170 custodial employees cleaned an average of 44,000 square feet of space daily, including a total of more than 800 classrooms, labs and auditoriums and more than 980 restrooms.
- Ed von Bleichert, our sustainability and resiliency program manager, earned the Chancellor’s Employee of the Year Award for his excellent job performance and contributions to the campus community.
- I&S Human Resources and Business Services continue to provide invaluable support for you all while continuing to serve the CUPD following its transition out of our organization.
- Chief Sustainability Officer Heidi VanGenderen spearheaded our campus efforts to join the University Climate Change Coalition of 15 leading research universities focused on helping communities accelerate achievement of their carbon-reduction goals.
- Our Distribution Center took over delivery of UPS packages, reducing truck traffic on campus and creating a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Real Estate Services continues to advance our efforts with the city at CU º£½ÇÉçÇø South and address programmatic space needs as space on campus tightens.
- Many of our I&S groups, from Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) to Campus Building Services to Planning, Design and Construction and more, were represented on the awards podium at the Campus Sustainability Awards ceremony.
- Collaboration from across Facilities Management, guided by the leadership of Project Manager Stephen Graziano and Project Coordinator Dena Heisner, led to the opening of the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE) as a new gateway for campus visitors and hub of student vitality.
- We broke ground on the new aerospace engineering building on East Campus and the Williams Village East Residence Hall, with both projects progressing well. This is in addition to numerous other smaller projects completed over the past year and still ongoing, as well as a couple of major ones about to begin, including the Imig Music Building addition and Ramaley Biology addition. Over the past year, a lot of work has gone into these projects to usher them through design.
- Several of you in Infrastructure and Sustainability worked over the last year to enable the transition of Transportation Services to our organization on July 1, with Tim Golden graciously adding interim transportation director to his duties as associate director of the Distribution Center.Ìý
- Our Outdoor Services team continues to maintain a campus landscape that is world-renowned. And it’s not just the hundreds of acres of immaculate lawns, 15,000 flowers planted or some 3,500 trees maintained, but also their collaboration with our project managers and others on projects like sidewalk repairs and reconfiguration of the C4C bus stop on Regent Drive that stand out.
- EH&S began implementation of a new software platform that enables them and CU º£½ÇÉçÇø’s research communities to more efficiently manage laboratory training, inspections, equipment, hazards and more.Ìý
- Campus Building Services, in conjunction with Housing and Dining Services, began utilizing a new waste diversion yard on East Campus for bulk scrap metal, cardboard and organics.
- Seventy-eight of you participated in the VCIS Day of Service, contributing a total of 234 volunteer hours to help prepare the campus for the return of students this fall.
Our coming year is shaping up for a list that is just as impressive. Our Strategic Facilities Visioning effort has just launched. I&S HR has a number of new employee development initiatives in the works. And our I&S Mentor Program, fresh off a year of record participation, is getting set to take applications for its next cohort. Meanwhile, we’ll continue integrating Transportation Services into our team, taking unique approaches to addressing our deferred maintenance backlog and, as always, looking for ways to further drive sustainability and resiliency efforts on our campus.
Thank you again for all you do. I’m grateful for the passion, energy and expertise you bring to our campus every day.
Sincerely,
David Kang, Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Safety
