Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Operations Andrea DooleyFacilities
The transition to the cold season has kept staff and facilities vendors busy as we managed HVAC and boiler startups, grounds cleanup, and summer construction project closeout. The second half of our project year is actively in the design and contracting processes. Project planning for the coming FY24 is in full swing as the capital improvements across campus continue at a fantastic rate.
Comings & Goings
We are very pleased to introduce our new Director of Facilities Operations, Todd Yuratich, who started November 1. Todd came from the University of Portland and hit the ground running. We also welcome Gigi Newcomer-Neeson to the Cooley House grounds team. Please reach out and introduce yourself and give them a warm welcome.
Capital Projects
The Templeton Student Center renovation is 98% complete, and the building will be fully open the week of December 19. Templeton Way is now open with a pedestrian focus and reduced traffic (open only to official vehicles and food service deliveries). The Lower Templeton lot will be opened to about 50% capacity through January 13 when it will fully reopen with the expected completion of the new Templeton elevator.
The new Graduate campus Gate 8 parking lot is open and operational. The final lighting design to be “Night Sky” compliant will be energized this month and the project will be complete.
Stewart and Odell began construction on December 15. The contractor has begun mobilization to the site, and we will close part of the Akin and Odell parking lots. The work will be in full swing through the end of August for the fall semester move-in.
Huston Sports Complex renovation is working through design phases. We continue to track project construction starting in May 2023, with a September 2023 new turf completion target. A new restroom facility is in development, with a completion target of December 2023.
Grad Commons, aka Corbett House Circle, is going well with the concrete pour for the new pedestrian pathways impending, and the new plantings and large format pavers to be installed for the gathering spaces. The project will complete over the coming two months and will blossom beautifully through the spring and summer.
Law School Improvements, an extension of the masterplan work done several years ago, includes a new moot courtroom for instruction, library reference desk area reorganization, and office installation, along with a furniture refresh in design and planning for a summer construction schedule.
Roofing Projects:
South Chapel roof replacement has begun with some repair of stormwater collection systems and will be fully repaired this spring as weather allows for a more comprehensive tear-off.
Evans Hall roof is 99% complete, as we work to sew up every detail
Watzek Roof and downspout work will get underway as we troubleshoot various flashings and stormwater systems. Expect more activity through the winter in this area.
Sustainability
As shared previously, the Lewis & Clark Sustainability Council in partnership with the University of Puget Sound and Portland Public Schools, held aworkshopfocused on developing an interactive summer class tentatively entitled Become a Community Climate Leader. We recently applied for implementation funding through the NW5 Engage Grant and were successful! A big thank you to Joel Martinez, Julia Unangst, and Cara Tomlinson for helping us apply for and implement this grant.
We continue to work on the Climate Action Plan update including investigating energy efficiency project opportunities, talking with local and national leaders about grant opportunities, and completing in-depth studies around the decarbonization of our facilities and operations. We are very excited about the opportunities before us! Please keep an eye out this spring for additional opportunities to engage in the Climate Action Plan - in particular, we are looking for more Energy Team members, contact Amy Dvorak if you are interested.
As students prepared to leave for winter break, the Sustainability Office and other on-campus partners hosted several move-out donation sites between December 13-16. We hope to bring back some version of the ReUse Room with donated materials next semester.
Business Office and Student Accounts
Comings & Goings:
The Business Office is currently in the process of hiring for the department’s vacant staff accountant position. In Student and Departmental Account Services, Jolie Allen has accepted a new role as Student Account Coordinator, and Jemma Burkett joined the team as a Student Account Specialist at the end of October. SDAS has one remaining Student Account Specialist vacancy to be filled.
Business Office and Student and Departmental Account Services
The College’s Audit Committee accepted the FY22 financial statements, and the audited financial statements were issued in October. The team is now completing numerous compliance and accreditation surveys, and preparing for calendar year-end reporting with deadlines for filing the College’s Form 990, 1099s, 1098-Ts, and other calendar-year-based filings approaching quickly following Winter Break.
Financial Planning and Analysis
This fall, the Financial Planning and Analysis team compiled an updated financial projection for the current year. Thanks to the hard work of faculty and staff throughout campus, we expect to meet or exceed the 2022-2023 budget. Fall also marks the beginning of the budget development process for the following academic year. We have assembled projections and assumptions that will inform the FY24 budget. Lastly, several budget training sessions were held for new employees and leadership teams throughout the College of Arts & Sciences and Common Services. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with questions regarding budget-related matters.
Information Technology
Comings & Goings
We welcome Gabe Lopez, our new Technology Support Specialist, to our IT Department.
Infrastructure/Operations/Service Desk
The IT Infrastructure/Operations teams continued to work on preparing for the sale of private IPv4 addresses by coordinating with key application stakeholders on changing publicly facing IP addresses of network servers. The Operations team assisted by migrating every Konica multifunction device printer IP address to the new IP address scheme.
The Infrastructure team also upgraded the primary Internet connection from 2 Gbps to 10 Gbps. As part of this project, the team upgraded network connectivity to all satellite offices and recognized a reduction in monthly recurring costs by almost 50%.
The Information Technology department, on a whole, closed 1770 work orders during the second quarter. Roughly 70% of these tickets were resolved by the Operations Team. During this time the IT Service Desk also maintained a customer satisfaction rating of 100%.
In September, the IT Service Desk and Infrastructure teams began work configuring Freshservice, our new ITSM solution. This new ticketing system will provide numerous improvements over the Track-it system currently in place.
Educational Technologies
During the fall semester, EdTech collaborated with faculty to offer several curricular-based skill workshops that ranged in topics from podcasting to video production, which allowed us to emphasize access to technologies through both the service desk and Graduate School loaner programs. The team collaborated with Academic Operations to conduct training for faculty on available classroom technology, especially technology in brand new classrooms on the 1st floor of Corbett House on the Graduate School campus. Finally, a new system for AV maintenance was piloted to proactively identify potential issues in graduate school classrooms, resulting in reduced emergency tickets.
Keeping with the theme of improving student access and awareness of IT resources, EdTech attended the Pio Fair and collected student feedback, crafted and distributed anIT Resources flyerto showcase IT resources, and held an R-Lab launch party.
The team also assisted with communications and consultations in support of IT’s Google Storage Quota implementation efforts. AGoogle Quotas landing pageand support pages forstaff, faculty,andstudentswere developed and published. This information was distributed through digital venues, tabling across campus to answer student questions, scheduled drop-in sessions, and individual appointments for the community to get 1 on 1 support in reducing their Google data storage usage.
Information Systems
Information Systems and the three Registrars met every other week to discuss the implementation of Colleague Self-Service related to faculty use, including necessary data cleanup, functionality to implement, priority for implementation, and timeline. In alternate weeks, Registrars had working meetings to discuss business processes and continue testing. The Colleague Self-Service grading went live on December 1.
Enterprise Applications
EA is leading the Google Storage quota implementation. EA, along with EdTech, will continue to work with faculty, staff, and students to find institutionally appropriate and sustainable storage solutions over the next few months.
