December 14, 2009
Physical Facilities vision, strategic plan at forefront in VP's first years
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Nearly 1,400 voices are being incorporated into future plans for Purdue's Physical Facilities department, and its vice president, Robert McMains, wouldn't have it any other way.
By early 2010, Physical Facilities will have a new vision as well as a new strategic plan focused on stewardship, sustainability and customer service.
"We've been keeping everyone involved with the visioning process as well as the development of the strategic plan," McMains says. "We gathered ideas from all areas within Physical Facilities and from all three shifts. This made the process for developing the vision and strategic plan longer, but this ensures that not only will we have a better product but also that everyone within Physical Facilities will have ownership of that product."
McMains joined Physical Facilities in October 2008, having served previously as associate vice president of facilities management at Emory University.
From the start, McMains was interested in hearing from staff within the department. He became involved in an employee survey that had been initiated before his arrival, and was excited that more than 1,200 of the department's nearly 1,400 employees participated.
"Their feedback has led to the development of about 200 action plans that will help to improve the department," McMains says. "The plans range from ways to improve communication to reviewing policies for consistency, to developing different types of training programs for all Physical Facilities employees."
Employee feedback and ideas also have proved critical to the development of a strategic plan as well as the area's visioning process, which is expected to be complete in early 2010.
"I feel that everyone needs to have a vision as far as where they're going as a department or university, which is something that President Córdova has done for Purdue as a whole," he says. "When we have established our vision, it will be shared through a pictorial or graphic depiction. Instead of having a lot of words that people memorize and then put on a shelf, everyone will have the opportunity to put our vision in their own words."
Physical Facilities' new strategic plan is expected to be finished in early 2010 as well. The plan will cover three main themes: stewardship, sustainability and customer service.
"Stewardship is why Physical Facilities was created," McMains says. "The University was created to teach students, and Physical Facilities ensures that from heating and cooling to snow removal to safety, the campus is fit to meet its educational mission.
"Sustainability also is a wonderful goal. You can talk about it and teach it, but if we're going to do sustainability initiatives on campus, Physical Facilities needs to be included. We're the ones who can save energy, promote recycling, and tackle other green efforts across campus."
At Emory, McMains was involved in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification process that resulted in recognition of Emory as the nation's top university in square feet of LEED-certified facilities. He also helped formulate and implement sustainability plans addressing stormwater management, recycling, and utility and energy conservation, as well as the establishment of no net loss tree canopy preservation and replacement and green cleaning programs.
McMains would like to position Purdue as a LEED leader as well as raise the University's rating on the College Sustainability Report Card.
In addition, Physical Facilities is involved with the creation of both a campus sustainability plan and an energy management plan, which are slated to be complete in the spring.
McMains says the third strategic plan theme, customer service, increases Physical Facilities' ties to the academic part of campus.
"This is something we've been involved with before, but we really have so many more opportunities to be part of the academic mission," he says. "We have some staff who teach classes and some who do guest speaking. We hire interns, and we have work-study. We also can have classes do projects for us, and that allows us to benefit from the expertise of students while providing them with practical experience in project development and presentations.
"We want to be the service provider of choice, to be such a collaborative partner with academia that they will say, 'why wouldn't we ask Physical Facilities about participating?'"
Also during his first year at Purdue, McMains has reorganized the project management area to create one point of contact for clients. Master plans for all four campuses have been completed and presented and a transportation demand management study is nearing completion.
Responsibilities in Physical Facilities
As Purdue’s vice president for physical facilities, Robert McMains is responsible for planning and construction of campus lands and facilities on all four Purdue campuses.
The vice president also oversees buildings and grounds, custodial services, operations and maintenance, utility
production and distribution, sustainability, facilities planning and construction, the police and fire departments, radiological and environmental management, emergency preparedness and planning, parking, transportation, the Purdue Airport, central machine shop, printing services, central stores, material receiving and distribution, the university warehouse, and campus mail.