Tree Campus USA

Western Illinois University has been selected to be a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Congratulations to Tara Beal and the WIU Tree Advisory Committee!

More details to come, check the WIU home page for information.

It's coming!

Check it out at Rocky on Parade

Thompson Hall Exterior Renovation

 The start of the $25 million project to replace the outside of Thompson Hall, replace the student room heating & cooling units and remodel the student rooms. Andy Daniels, Project Manager for Facilities Management is leading the project for WIU.

January 3,2013 The termites have been very busy working on the outside of Thompson. I'm glad I'm not working on the lift in this weather.

 January 14th.  Nine degrees outside. Putting more holes in the walls.

Facilities Management Introduction

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself - my name is Scott Coker and I was recently selected as the director of Facilities Management (FM) at Western Illinois University. I am a Macomb native, have attended WIU in the past, and I am currently taking classes again at WIU.  I have worked at Western Illinois University for the last 10 years as a mechanical engineer, assistant director and now director. I am starting these ongoing columns to introduce Facilities Management, what we are currently working on around campus and what we have planned for the future.

Even though I am a lifelong resident of Macomb, I was amazed at how much goes on and what it takes to run this fine University. In Facilities Management, we maintain over 200 acres of manicured lawn and seven acres of flower beds along with over 2,800 trees. There are over 17 miles of sidewalk that are included in our 74 acres of paved surfaces. In our 64 buildings, we have 5,000 motors, 650 drinking fountains, 20,000 feet of steam lines and over 5,000 thermostats. There are 80 elevators, 100 roofs, 10,000 doors and about 50,000 windows.  Our fleet vehicles travel over 1.3 million miles a year and we have over 130 vending machines in the buildings.  We clean and maintain over 4.5 million square feet of space which is equivalent to over 1,800 average sized homes. To help keep track of this work, there are over 30,000 work orders processed each year in facilities.  All of this work is accomplished with about 350 employees.

You may have noticed that I am using a new name for the Physical Plant Department.  Effective Jan. 1, we formally changed the name of the Physical Plant to Facilities Management. I feel this is a perfect opportunity to start a new era in our department.  It is about improving the learning environment for our students, enhancing communication with our campus community and improving our customer service. I have found that most folks outside our building do not understand the term “Physical Plant”, often confuse it with the Heating Plant, and therefore not really understanding what we do on a day to day basis. Facilities Management, or FM, is easier on the ears. Basically, we manage and maintain all the facilities at the main Macomb campus, the two Quad City locations, Horn Lodge, Kibbe Station and the University Farms.

Briefly, some of our major projects that are ongoing on campus include: The Performing Arts Center, University Drive entrance upgrade, University Union remodel, Thompson Hall exterior replacement, steam line upgrades, coal masonry stack removal and electrical infrastructure replacement.  We have a host of other projects currently underway that I will highlight in later columns.

In this time of very tight budgets, and aging buildings and infrastructure, a need to find ways to improve our facilities to attract and retain students it is critical that FM works with the campus to find the best solutions. I feel it is critical that the director of Facilities Management communicate well with campus and provide forums for feedback.  We will be holding facility open forums in Spring 2013 and will be improving our building representative program. I have met and will continue to meet with Faculty Senate, SGA, the deans of the colleges, the City of Macomb, the Chairs Council, and the Inter-Hall Council to solicit input and provide feedback.  Facility Management’s  mission is to maintain and enhance the campus physical environment in support of academic and other related functions of the University.

If you have questions or comments please feel free to call at (309) 298-1834 or check out our Facilities blog at wiufm.blogspot.com