Director of Facilities Stewart Walker sits in the weekly Administration Team meeting in the Admissions Conference Room, recounting plans for adjustments to campus. Following the meeting, he goes to his office in the maintenance hallway to determine the bidding price for a company to seal the parking lots over the summer. Taking a break from working on the budget for facilities, Walker decides how the main building on campus should be used during the junior ring festivities, specifically by providing more chairs for the visitors.
Walker, who took the job “a little over two months ago,” has set goals for the development of campus in both the short term and the future.
“Mr. Walker has a lot of wonderful ideas about how to address facilities issues now,” President Richard O’Hara said.
“My impression at this point is we have a pretty solid structural facility that is showing its age in a lot of other ways. There is a lot of old equipment, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, finishes. We’ve made some progress and we’ve upgraded selective things, but there’s a lot of work that’s critical for us to do,” Walker said.
“One big goal” is simplifying, organizing, and standardizing aspects of campus, allowing facilities to be “more cost efficient in the short term and long term,” Walker said.
He also hopes to move the school towards “becoming proactive in facilities” by implementing a preventive maintenance program.
“One of the areas that I will focus a lot of attention on is increasing our overall efficiency and processes at both a macro and micro level to reach a place where we are primarily proactive and then able to react when necessary and do both with excellence,” Walker said. “This will not be an overnight change, but a process that will require a lot of effort, time and resources.”
Walker is also leading a movement to help the school to become more environmentally conscious through an energy conservation program. He said, “This has a lot of aspects tied to it – everything from the highly visible and well-known, like recycling, to a wide variety of things behind the scenes, such as energy management, energy sources, preventive maintenance and the types of cleaning and consumables products that are utilized on the campus.”
After witnessing areas filled with “clutter that needs to be taken out for good,” Walker wants to “make better use of existing storage. We need to make more efficient use of our storage space.”
More specifically, Walker’s focus is on the campus, maintenance, cleaning, building use, and targeted projects.
“The campus needs to be more attractive and welcoming to the community as a whole,” Walker said, citing removing dead trees, keeping the grounds clean, and adding seasonal colors, like flowers, as key ways to see improvement.
Currently targeted projects, according to Walker, include improving the main entrance sign, scheduled to be completed “within the next couple of weeks.” Already, he has overseen “improving and installing signage” in the locker rooms.
However, facilities faces obstacles as a result of finances, timing, and personnel available. Specifically about monetary concerns, Walker said, “There is a direct connection between what the school has finance wise and what it enables us to do.”
Walker also hopes to prepare the school for the master plan. Walker said, “One of the challenges here is balancing the time and the money issues inherent with the master plan. We are doing things [now] to transition us to that point.”
The master plan will also help make JC a more sustainable campus; Walker said, “Another entire area that will be opened up in the future will be in conjunction with the master plan and any building additions [or] new construction and renovations.”
Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected]