Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--With nearly 800 acres of maintained grounds, 300 buildings, 15 miles of roadways, and thousands of people making use of the Mississippi State University campus daily, MSU's facilities management group is one of the busiest units at the land-grant institution.
"Our crews are working every day to provide routine maintenance, ranging from repairing leaks in buildings, cleaning classrooms, to ensuring we have a well-maintained campus landscape," said Jim Jones, executive director of facilities management. Some 225 employees staff a unit whose normal work day begins at 4 a.m.
Identifying priorities and funding for new projects, in addition to ensuring resources for day-to-day upkeep, has been a top priority for the facilities management group and remains so, said Mike McGrevey, vice president for finance and administration. In his position, he oversees areas that also include the controller, budget, procurement and contracts, and receiving and property, among others.
"We're here to enhance the mission of the university and to identify resources that ensure the efficient operation of an extraordinarily complex organization with more than 4,300 employees statewide," McGrevey said.
Facilities management is moving forward with a comprehensive 10-year maintenance plan that outlines phased priorities and funding sources for a variety of areas: streets, parking lots, sidewalks, grounds, roofing needs, building exteriors, building interiors, water systems, utilities, fire protection, and Americans With Disability compliance, among others. The plan addresses immediate needs of campus infrastructure deficiencies.
"Because we have a lot of expertise around campus, we have decided to restructure the old campus planning committee," Jones said. "We'll seek input from a variety of professionals here at MSU as we move forward with refurbishing our campus landscape."
Most recently, McGrevey said campus landscape decisions have generated intense interest and discussion, but he said changes are being made with the intention of enhancing and refining existing landscape designs.
"Our overall goal is to make the campus safe, friendly, accessible, and welcoming for all who study and work at Mississippi State, or visit--especially for the first time," McGrevey said. "That includes signage that clearly indicates where the campus begins and clearly identifies buildings and streets.
"For instance, based on recommendations from our landscape professionals, we'll do some wholesale refurbishing of landscape areas such as those around Hand Chemical Lab, Allen Hall and many outlying parking lots in FY '09," McGrevey said. "The plantings there are tired and over-matured."
Landscape plans also call for increasing beds of annual and perennial plantings; increasing rose beds; and creating a number of managed daffodil areas--a first.
"Daffodils are not gone from our landscape," he emphasized. "We have had no managed areas, and we currently are sheltering bulbs from random locations around campus. We will replant late next fall, and they'll return even more dramatically next spring."
Some crape myrtles--notably some that had overgrown the entrance to Dudy Noble Field/Polk Dement Stadium--also have been removed to make way for a renewed landscape bed. These will be relocated to another area on campus, probably Hardy Boulevard parking lot near Rice Hall, Jones explained. Additionally crape myrtles from outside of Lee Hall have been relocated to the rear of Colvard Student Union in a new landscaped area.
Work also is beginning on the first phase of Old Main Plaza, a pedestrian space linking McCool Hall, Colvard Student Union, Perry Cafeteria, and Montgomery Hall.
"We anticipate the first two phases to be close to completion by the end of August," McGrevey said. Plans for enhanced grounds also call for additional bike racks and benches, part of the university's commitment to a more pedestrian-friendly campus.
"Consistent with our 10-year strategic plan, FutureSTATE 2015, we are committed to providing a campus infrastructure and physical appearance that are inviting and pride-inspiring," McGrevey said.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.