Plant Operations

Building Coordinators Corner

University buildings will experience planned electrical interruptions March 14, 15 and 16 to make necessary repairs to the electrical distribution system, as well as complete necessary preventative testing to the distribution system.

During these three days, building occupants can expect power interruptions of a few seconds' duration while building load transfers occur.

These power blips will occur -

1. Friday, March 14, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. and between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
2. Saturday, March 15, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. and between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
3. Sunday, March 16, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

For more details, visit www.uh.edu/plantops/news-events/stories/20140306/

Building coordinators quarterly meeting held

Building coordinators met Feb. 28 as part of the quarterly meeting series to learn more about important information related to their facilities campus planning efforts and other available resources.

Jonathan Thurston, executive director of Facilities Planning and Construction, started off the meeting with a presentation about the university's major capital projects. In 2013, Facilities Planning and Construction completed seven capital projects and 502 minor projects. The department currently has four projects under construction and four upcoming construction projects.

With the recent integration of Minor and Planned Projects, Facilities Planning and Construction is now formally composed of Planning, Capital Project Management, Facilities Information, Project Inspections/QA-QC and Non-capital Project Management (formerly Minor and Planned Projects).

Jim Norcom, director of Compliance and Emergency Programs for Facilities Management, gave an overview and update of the facility condition assessment. In preparation for this presentation, building coordinators were provided copies in advance of their facility's assessment report. The facility condition and building systems assessment, initially started in 2011, provided a comprehensive report on university facility physical needs and helped establish criteria that will be used to support the master and long term capital plan.

Facilities Management's Sameer Kapileshwari, interim executive director, and Avinash Rahurkar, interim associate director, gave a presentation on the assessment's next steps, which include prioritizing needs and alignment with academic and master planning efforts (capital improvement plan) with full plan implementation by FY14.

Moving forward with the assessment results will require an integrated strategy with communication as the key to the process. Sameer and Avinash shared that there are proposed summer 2014 projects already planned that include addressing electrical, water and HVAC issues identified in the assessment reports.

Director of Planning Mike Yancey and Assistant Director of Planning Jeanne LaMontagne provided a capital improvement project update. Their work will analyze the assessment data for inclusion in the capital improvement planning process. Their findings captured facilities needs and assigned them as building age issues, building refresh, additional/better utilization of space, learning technology needs, and security/safety concerns.

Associate Vice President/Vice Chancellor Malcolm Davis, Public Safety and Security, gave a presentation and update on university access control with examples of the variety of card and non-card readers being installed across campus. Davis indicated that as the access control project continues, updates will be distributed to building occupants via their building coordinators.

There was a brief demonstration of a soon-to-be rolled out building coordinator option as one of the new features of FAMIS self-service by Facilities Management Senior IT Business Analyst Khanh Hodges.

And last but not least, Facilities Management Communications Manager Jacquie Vargas closed with a review of building coordinator expectations and the reaffirmation of the importance of the building coordinator role and the university's appreciation of each staff member that serves as a building coordinator.

To view the entire slide presentation and to learn more about the Building Coordinator Program, visit www.uh.edu/plantops/programs/bldg-coordinator/20140228-bc-qtrly-mtg.pdf. The next quarterly meeting is scheduled for May 16.

Second meet and greet a success

The second Building Coordinator Meet and Greet event was held March 3 in partnership with Student Housing and Residential Life. The events provide an opportunity for interaction between building coordinators, building occupants and facilities team members for open discussion and to ask questions, to learn more about facilities and occupant needs and concerns.

They are part of a new building coordinator program initiative sponsored by Facilities Management and Administration and Finance. During the March 3 event, Residence Life building coordinators participated with Facilities Management and Facilities Planning and Construction team members in a roundtable discussion and exchange.

Discussion topics included hot and cold calls, access, how work requests are prioritized, building inspections, recycling and sustainability, response times for work requests, and building warranty issues. This was a great opportunity to not only meet the building coordinators, most of whom are also residence life coordinators, but to also get to know them better and build bridges for the future. The pilot Meet and Greet was held in partnership with the college of Natural Sciences and Math. The Meet and Greet schedule for the remainder of FY14 is being developed and will be communicated to building coordinators.

Idea raised of posting outage notifications on website

During the Feb. 28 quarterly meeting, a question was raised regarding the possibility of posting utility outages/outage notification information on the Plant Operations website so it could easily be accessed by university staff and building coordinators.

Facilities Management is working with the Facilities Service Center and the Plant Operations web content manager to come up with an option for providing this information. More to come as this develops.

LED lighting project continues across campus

The campus is undergoing a project to replace numerous light fixtures with efficient and cost-effective LED lighting. The project is still underway but once it is substantially completed, more information will be communicated including the areas of campus where they have been installed.

During the project, data is also being gathered as to the cost benefits and payback period that LED lighting will provide in addition to benefits derived such as better lighting on campus walkways and around buildings. The planned completion is set for the spring semester.

If you have any questions, wish to offer some feedback or have a special topic that you would like to see addressed in the Building Coordinators Corner, please contact Adriana Avila or Jacquie Vargas.