CU Facilities Transition Announcement

Dear Colleague,

Since my appointment as Executive Vice President of Columbia University Facilities in August 2005, I have been working with a 12 member Transition Team, composed of Facilities managers, to design and build the new Facilities organization. The Team has worked hard and I am pleased to update you on the work of the Transition Team and our plans for implementing its recommendations.

We started our work by asking each Transition Team member to talk with faculty and administrators to whom we provide service to understand what they expect from Facilities. The input from you, our colleagues, was essential and your message was very clear. While you praise our friendly, skilled and resourceful staff, you have additional expectations: greater transparency in dealing with us - clarity on whom to contact to request service, confirmation on when you can expect to receive service, and the status of any job when requested; clear communication about baseline services, costs and expected outcomes; more consistently high quality work at reasonable costs delivered at convenient times; and more timely and accurate billing and close out processes.

Working for the last four months, the Team has developed a new service model and organizational design for Facilities that will enable us to meet expectations. Our goal is to become the finest Facilities organization in higher education.

The success of these changes is dependent upon good leadership. While there will be the need to initiate search processes for several key positions, the majority of leadership roles will be filled by members from within our current organization and are effective immediately.

Strengthening the existing complement of senior managers, key appointments and promotions are summarized below:

Office of the Executive Vice President

• Bill Scott as Deputy Vice President
• Director of Communications (to be appointed)

Capital Project Management

• Marcelo Velez as Associate Vice President
• Hans Rehnstedt as Director of Housing Renovations
• Nicole Nicusanti as Associate Director of Housing Renovations
• Director of Historic Preservation and Exteriors (to be appointed)

Facilities Operations

• Chief Operations Officer (to be appointed)
• Joe Barkwill as Assistant Vice President for Plant Engineering and Utilities
• Mark Kerman as Associate Vice President for Residential Operations
• Don Schlosser as Assistant Vice President for Campus Operations
• Fred Small as Director of Facilities Service Center
• Director of Utilities Management (to be appointed)

Finance and Administration

• Chief Administrative Officer (to be appointed)
• Peter Michaelides as Assistant Vice President for Business Process and Systems Support
• Assistant Vice President of Human Resources (to be appointed)
• Annette Lopes as Executive Director of Employee and Labor Relations
• Director of Training and Development (to be appointed)

Manhattanville Development

• (to be appointed)

Public Safety

• James McShane as Associate Vice President

While it will take 12 to 18 months to implement our new organizational design, and to obtain the full impact of its benefits, we will initiate several key changes immediately. By July 1, 2006 under the leadership of the team highlighted above, we will:

• Implement our new service model which emphasizes strengthened centralized services and 24/7 coverage.
• Initiate the development of a Facilities Service Center which will include a Call Center capable of receiving requests for Facilities services through a single point of entry.
• Redefine Residential Operations to strengthen the management of residential properties and to include responsibility for faculty and graduate student housing, undergraduate housing, apartment lease administration, management of leased space operations and parking. We have redefined several positions and are working to have new leadership in place as quickly as possible. For those of you in University apartments, we will be contacting you directly with more detailed information about these changes.
• Replace the Area Management structure with Campus Operations featuring strengthened centralized shop services, improved supervision and an emphasis on client service.
• Establish Plant Engineering and Utilities which includes an emphasis on preventive maintenance as well as the formation of an Engineering and Commissioning unit and a Utilities Management unit.
• Broaden the scope of Capital Project Management to include apartment renovations and historic preservation.
• Realize administrative efficiencies by consolidating key support functions including Human Resources, Information Technology, and Capital Project Management.

My team and I are very excited about the opportunities before us. While I am confident these changes will achieve the outcomes we desire, there will be challenges along the way. We will work hard to minimize the potential for any service disruptions during our transition but please let us know immediately should you have any concerns. To help ensure the smoothest transition possible, my team members will be reaching out to you over the next few weeks to help clarify our plans and to introduce those in new service roles. I will also keep you updated on our progress and will notify you of our longer term plans as they are solidified.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Ienuso
Executive Vice President
Columbia University Facilities

*** Important Note****

Until further notice, please continue to contact your Area office or your Building Superintendent regarding service requests.