CU Facilities Transition Update

By
Office of the Executive Vice President
February 10, 2006

Dear Colleague:

I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to you as a follow-up to my letter last week about our reorganization in Columbia University Facilities. While there are changes that strengthen each of our business units, I thought it might be helpful to clarify some of the changes that affect our colleagues most directly. As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Accessing Services

Campus Operations

Although we are transitioning from the Area structure, please continue to call your Area office for service. All of our Area Supervisors, Area Mechanics and Tenant Representatives are still in place and will be providing service continuity. We will be migrating towards our new model over the next few months and will notify you when there are changes in how to place a service request.

By March 1 2006, three of our current Area Supervisors will transition into their new roles as Facilities Service Representatives. These new roles have a single purpose - to ensure that your Facilities service needs are being met. Each of the Service Representatives will report directly to the Assistant Vice President of Campus Operations, Don Schlosser, and will have access to all business units and managers across our organization to help meet your service needs.

Our three new Facilities Service Representatives are:

  • John Ciofalo who has served as an Area Supervisor and will become your primary contact if you are in any of the following buildings:

B-230 East Campus

Casa Hispanica

Casa Italiana

Career Services

Deutsches House

Greene Hall & Annex

Hamilton Hall

Heyman Center

Green House

International Affairs

Journalism

Kent Hall

Lewisohn Hall

Low Library

Mathematics

Philosophy Hall

Uris Hall

William C. Warren Hall

William & June Warren Hall

  • Joe DiPietro. who has served as an Area Supervisor will become your primary contact if you are an occupant in any of the following buildings:

Avery Hall

Buell Hall

Baker Field

Butler Library

Dodge Fitness Center

Dodge Hall

Earl Hall

Fayerweather Hall

Alfred Lerner Hall

Prentis Hall

St. Paul's Chapel

  • Pete Macaluso who has served as an Area Supervisor and will become your primary contact if you are in any science related building including:

CEPSR

Chandler Hall

Computer Center Computer Science

Engineering Terrace

Fairchild Hall

Havemeyer Hall

Havemeyer Extension

S.W. Mudd

Nevis Laboratories

Pupin Hall

Schermerhorn Hall

Schermerhorn Extension

Service Building

Residential and Commercial Operations

As part of our new organizational design, Mark Kerman, our Associate Vice President for Residential and Commercial Operations, will oversee all residential operations.

Mark has appointed three Directors of Residential Services who will oversee the delivery of services to our faculty, students and staff in residential buildings. All three appointees were Housing Managers with the former Institutional Real Estate division and they bring a great deal of residential operations experience. As Directors of Residential Services, they are charged with ensuring the delivery of excellent service, improved communications, building operations and repairs and management of our building staff.

Our Residential Service Directors are:

  • Cathleen Ryder. While with Columbia for only five months, Cathleen has over 15 years of experience operating large residential portfolios in New York City
  • Nelson Falcon. Has been with the University for over ten years and has extensive experience managing residential properties in New York City:
  • Kevin Padgett. Brings over fifteen years of experience in the operation of complex residential buildings and has been with Columbia for over five years.

Over the course of the next few days we will be posting a notice in each of our residential buildings to identify the Director for your building.

Undergraduate Residence Halls, while now reporting to Mark Kerman, will continue to be managed by the former Area team until we complete our transition efforts for this critical service area. For service requests related to any of the Undergraduate Residence Halls, please contact the Area at 854-9135 or at [email protected].

Mark has also appointed Ed Lauth, formerly an Area Director, to the position of Director of Commercial Properties. Ed brings over fifteen years of experience in commercial property operations and will oversee all of the commercial buildings in which Columbia holds an interest or rents space for academic or administrative use including:

Armstrong Hall

Interchurch Center

McVickar Hall

Thorndike Hall

615 W. 131st St.

420 W. 120th St

330 5th Avenue

1700 Broadway

2875 Broadway

2929 Broadway

3280 Broadway

If you are in a Columbia commercial space and require assistance please contact Ed Lauth at 854-9301.

Plant Engineering and Utilities

Joe Barkwill, our Assistant Vice President for Plant Engineering and Utilities, will oversee all of the engineering units responsible for the campus' infrastructure, utilities, and physical plant departments.

Joe Barkwill, has appointed Brian O'Rourke, most recently an Area Director, as a Senior Engineer in our Engineering and Commissioning Group. This newly formed group will be responsible for developing system specifications and ensuring that all equipment and systems that are installed across campus are designed and maintained to meet the highest levels of performance and efficiency.

We are confident that our changes will allow us to support you better and we look forward to the opportunity for you to meet our management team and those in key service roles. Please visit our web site at www.cuf.columbia.edu for updates on our transition and further detail on our services and organizational structure.

Once again, I thank you for your patience as we work through this important transition, and invite you, as always, to contact me or my staff with any concerns.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Ienuso
Executive Vice President of Columbia University Facilities

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