Joseph D. Rubertone is associate vice president for Facilities Administration at
Quinnipiac University (Conn.), a private institution of 5,400 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students located next to Sleeping Giant Mountain in Hamden, about 90 minutes from New York City. Its two campuses sit on 446 acres; most main campus buildings are less than 20 years old. Rubertone has been with Quinnipiac for 34 years. In the past, he has served as vice president of information services for APPA and as president of Eastern Region APPA, and he has received the APPA Meritorious Service Award. www.quinnipiac.edu/x52.xml
Richard Pifer is associate vice president for University Facilities and Services at the University of Rochester in upstate New York. The main campus, with 85 acres, is located along a river about two miles from downtown Rochester, and the institution has a total of 600 acres. Pifer joined the private university in 1999 as director of facilities, after serving in the facilities department at Georgetown University (D.C.) since 1990 and in the U.S. Army, where he worked in facilities support for overseas and U.S. military operations. www.facilities.rochester.edu
Douglas Christensen is advocate in the Office of Administrative Services for Physical Facilities at Brigham Young University (Utah), located on a 560-acre campus in the city of Provo, about 45 miles from Salt Lake City and at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Christensen was recently honored by APPA with a Fellow Award and has received the APPA President's Award for his development of the Facility Management Evaluation Program, used by APPA members to check the efficiency and effectiveness of their facility operations. http://plantwo.byu.edu/x52.xml
Today's campus facilities directors are called upon to serve their institutions in myriad ways. Daily challenges include everything from fielding "too hot" or "too cold" complaints to ensuring their campuses are clean, safe, and attractive. And there are always short- and long-term projects to plan and execute, from the construction of new buildings to the maintenance and modernization of existing ones.
For this virtual roundtable discussion, University Business caught up with four top facilities directors to ask them about their evolving roles. Read on to learn more about their experiences and perspectives related to competition among institutions, safety and security, succession planning, customer service, outsourcing, and total cost of ownership approaches to facilities management. The participants share how they're dealing with these issues, which affect all who work, study, and live in every corner of nearly any campus.
Competition for students is intense. Hence, institutions are emphasizing their most impressive campus facilities. How has competition affected your role?
JosEph Rubertone: In the last 10 years, the competition among universities and colleges has increased. Once the decision is made to build a facility, that's seen both as an improvement to the quality of life as well as a potential leg up on the competition. [Institutional leaders] want them, and they want them yesterday.
When you need land use commission approval, it adds four to six months to the process. Quinnipiac is a major traffic generator, so if any of the improvements involve parking we need to go to the State Traffic Commission in addition to the local commissions.
