Limited funds and staff slow Physical Plant's long-term goals
By Jonathan Hiser
For more than 100 UP students, Physical Plant is the service they call when a heater fails or ants invade. UP owns and services 40 off-campus houses, 26 of which have students. Although a fraction of the nearly 1500 off-campus undergraduate students, the students living in university-owned housing manage to keep Physical Plant and its dedicated crew busy 24/7.
With additions to the Engineering Hall and tentative plans for a new dormitory underway, ASUP senators wondered if the maintenance priority of off-campus students would change as a result.
The senators got their chance to voice concerns when Physical Plant Director Paul Luty visited the ASUP Senate meeting on Jan. 21.
"We wanted to know how they prioritize issues and how much they have to do," Senator Daniel Rhine said. "He told us that there were too many things to do and not enough people or finances to complete them all."
In a separate interview, Luty said future construction will not create a priority issue for off-campus students. He added that remodeling projects actually lessen maintenance needs for those buildings.
As a result, the Physical Plant crews can spend more time working on off-campus housing maintenance and less time on those remodeled buildings, like the Engineering Building.
The lack of staff and funding Luty mentioned to ASUP was for Physical Plant's long-term goals, not their immediate needs.
"We're currently staffed to take care of the day-to-day issues with a backlog of work, but we don't have enough staff to be proactive and try to prevent them in the first place," Luty said.
The long-term goal for Physical Plant is to develop preventative measure programs, but Luty added that the department is still in the design phase. Luty said there are a lot of things he wishes Physical Plant could do to improve this campus, but added that it comes down to finding the funding.
"But we are trying to do the best we can, and we actually do quite well for the funding we get," Luty said. "In the last five years we've been getting some extra money, and so if that continues for another five years, then we can get them all up to speed."
Although funding and staff have slowly increased over the years, it doesn't take much to use up the budget, according to Physical Plant Assistant Director Fay Beeler.
"We have a capital budget of $50,000 for big ticket items, but a single housing repair can run upwards of $12,000," Beeler said. "While that seems like a lot, it doesn't take much to eat that up."
Physical Plant responds within one to two days to any complaint or concern from off-campus university rentals, according to Beeler. The increased response time is in part due to a stronger focus on student complaints.
"We're off to a good start because we've addressed concerns much more rapidly," Beeler said. "We've made it clear around the office that we need to act on student work orders immediately."
Rhine's constituency is off-campus residents. He noted that only a minor amount of these students live in campus-owned housing.
"Because we're only two weeks into the Senate, I haven't heard a lot of the gripes yet," he said.
The reason for the constant repairs is simply a matter of aging buildings, Beeler said, adding that there's a lot of maintenance that comes with older homes.
Two years ago, off-campus grounds maintenance was handled not by Physical Plant, but by one caretaker. Residence Life Director Michael Walsh said that since that time, the UP rentals were incorporated into the whole system under Physical Plant.
"It's actually better now than when I first got here," Walsh said.
A primary limitation on larger housing remodeling and maintenance is the short window of time in order to make them. When it comes to remodeling anything on the inside or outside, Beeler said Physical Plant has one week before the house needs to be turned around for the next semester. With so little time, Luty said they have to pick and choose which houses to upgrade.
"We don't have a schedule that says which house we're going to do this year," Luty said. "We're looking at all the houses and the time allowed to work on them."
Rhine, who lives in a university rental, said he's had a good relationship with Physical Plant, but said workers have yet to fix a divot in his driveway.
Even so, Rhine said he has no complaints.
"I'll be logical, I know that the whole university parking lot needs to be done before my driveway; I understand that," Rhine said. "I just have to go up and down my driveway (at a normal speed) just like everybody else."
