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
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