Greetings from the Director's Office of PDC. The past year has brought dramatic changes across the university in response to the “great recession”. Colleges and Divisions across campus are reducing and/or deferring expenditures. Units across the university are examining their operations to identify core businesses and processes with the goal of strengthening essential functions and reducing or eliminating non-essential functions. PDC’s core business and mission is to “shape and enhance the physical environment” of Cornell in support of the university’s teaching, research and extension programs. One impact on PDC of the campus-wide changes is a steep reduction in our capital project and other work. For those projects that move forward we have an ever increasing emphasis on efficiency of execution and competitive procurement. The emphasis on construction of new facilities is being replaced with an emphasis on taking care of and better utilizing the facilities we have. It is too soon to tell the long term impact on PDC of the campus-wide budget decreases and shifting deployment of resources. Suffice it to say that our mission principles of partnering with our customers and providing best value to Cornell are more relevant than ever.
Cornell’s Staff Retirement Incentive Program (SRI) is an example of Cornell’s intent to implement cost control measures on a campus-wide basis. Bruce Bush took advantage of the opportunity and retired after 30 years of service to the university. We wish Bruce and all of PDC’s new retirees all the best as they transition into new routines and initiatives. I am delighted that David Newman stepped up and accepted an interim position as Superintendent of the Shops. I know that David is very excited at the prospect of changing his focus from delivery of new buildings to the diverse maintenance and renovation mission of the Shops.
Phil Cox, long time Director of Facilities Management, also took advantage of the SRI Program. VP Facilities, Kyu Whang, recently announced an interim plan to spread Phil’s departments across the Division. Customer Service moved to the Administration and Operations group. Building Care and Grounds moved to Utilities. I am delighted to report that Maintenance Management and the Mechanical Maintenance Shop have joined us in PDC. Please join me in welcoming Jim Gibbs, Michael Tubbs and their staff.
PDC has always been a resource for providing leaders to other departments at Cornell. Recently Peter Paradise joined our ranks of PDC Alumni who moved on to new leadership positions within Cornell. Peter accepted a position as Associate Director of Facilities at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). While we will surely miss Peter and his knowledge of PDC, his relationships with our staff will help us build a stronger partnership with CALS.
About 10 years ago PDC put a program in place to increase diversity in the skilled trades, both in the Shops and on our building construction sites. David Richardson stepped forward from his position in the Electric Shop to take the lead on the initiative. Over the years the PDC Diversity Initiative achieved recognition at Cornell and well beyond. David is leaving PDC to work for Cornell’s Recruitment and Employment Center. His role will expand to include a focus on other union positions on campus, as well as the skilled trades. He will be providing leadership on union diversity programs and recruitment efforts; will work with faculty and staff to create strategies for union position recruitment on campus; and will continue his role as mentor and advocate for diverse staff; all while keeping diversity awareness in the forefront of organizational business practices across campus and in the unions.
Diversity remains an important focus in PDC and Wendy Franzese will keep the initiative moving though partnerships with David and other Diversity Committee alumni.
Retirements, relocations and interim assignments create opportunities for others in the department to try their hand at new responsibilities. Erik Eshelman accepted a year long term assignment as head of the Civil Engineering Section. Tom Heenan accepted a three month assignment as University Engineer and head of PDC Design in Randy Lacey’s absence (see below). Brian Brown is serving as Director of the PDC Construction Management section while David Newman is occupied with the Shops.
And while I’m talking about interim assignments, Marvin Paige is doing double duty as Superintendent of both the Paint and the Carpenter Shops. Rodney Griffiths, Journeyman Mason, is serving as acting Superintendent of the Mason Shop. Given the hiring freeze at Cornell is extended to the end of the year, we should expect these and all interim assignments to last at least until then.
We have several recent promotions in PDC to our relatively new position of Senior Engineer. Bob Chiang, Andrew Germain, Chad Loomis, and Liz Kolacki all earned this promotion by demonstrating excellent technical skills and stewardship.
To all the people in PDC who are taking on new roles and responsibilities, please accept my sincere thanks and hopes that you make the most of them!
President Skorton signed the President’s Climate Commitment about 2 years ago. In it he committed to preparing a plan for Cornell to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The first major deliverable for the Climate Commitment is the Climate Action Plan. With overall leadership by VP Facilities Kyu Whang and Professor Tim Fahey, the Climate Action Plan is a comprehensive analysis of Cornell’s greenhouse gas inventory and a roadmap to reduce and eventually eliminate it. Over the past year PDC played a key role in the development of Cornell’s Climate Action Plan. Randy Lacey led the Building Energy Committee that developed energy modeling guidelines and energy use targets for building and renovation projects. PDC also participated in development of Smart Growth guidelines and new Supply Side initiatives to meet Cornell’s long term energy needs while minimizing greenhouse gas production. The Climate Action Plan presents broad strategy for Cornell to cut its greenhouse gas inventory. It will be presented to the senior administration and Trustees in later this summer and early fall.
Speaking of Randy Lacey, several months ago he learned of an opportunity to do a three month internship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. NREL is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. Randy is on the NREL payroll this summer to help them develop tools to assist institutions, such as colleges and universities, in developing their own climate action plans. Randy’s internship is a great opportunity for him and for Cornell to learn about initiatives for climate control. It is also a great honor to have “one of our own” selected to represent Cornell at an internationally recognized laboratory.
Even while FY 09 brought a dramatic reduction in work for PDC, we still achieved many project completions and milestones. The following paragraphs list a sampling.
PDC completed over $200M of new building construction work over the past year. Weill Hall opened in late spring 2008 and became Cornell’s first LEED Gold building. It is also Cornell’s biggest ever Ithaca Campus project and will keep Cornell at the forefront of research in the life sciences. We also opened the final phase of construction on West Campus, finishing the WCRI program two years early. Last winter we opened a Biofuels Research Laboratory in Riley Robb and a Teaching Winery. The Biofuels Lab enables research in extracting sugar from biomass and converting it to a variety of fuel types. The Teaching Wineryreflects the increasing importance of the wine industry in the NYS economy.
We often say that small projects have all the challenges of big ones but with fewer resources to solve them and the Cornell Child Care Center is no exception. C4 had an exceptionally challenging schedule and we opened it in time to receive about 50 youngsters last August.
Last summer we executed a project to rebuild Hoy Road and the underlying utility infrastructure. The project was noteworthy for two reasons. It was an in-house design led by Bob Chiang. It also brought a new contractor to Cornell who proved they can effectively compete for complex road/utility projects. The ST Olin 6th Floor Laboratory project is another noteworthy in-house design project. Subcontractor bids for STO 6, which is being delivered by the Office of General Construction, came in substantially under budget. STO 6 illustrates how the PDC design/construction team can deliver projects of exceptional value.
The Pipe Shop just completed a whirlwind project to install sprinklers in the Foundry as part of the Milstein Project. We couldn’t start the work until Milstein got approved, and then needed to get the sprinkler work done as quickly as possible to satisfy Fire Department requirements for the closing of University Avenue. The Control Shop installation of a new building automation system in Sage Hall is an example of a College funded energy conservation project. It was a design-build project for PDC and will pay for itself in reduced utility bills and maintenance calls for the Business School.
On a final note, I am delighted to report that the PDC Office of General Construction recently received Facilities Services’ first ever Keystone Award for “excellence in service to the organization and consistently providing quality output in work activities.” Congratulations to Pat Redder, Deborah Redman, Jaimi Shoemaker, and Jamie Sisson of the OGC.
Other PDC awardees include the team of David Newman, Bob Stundtner, and Brian Brown who won a Cornerstone Award for Distinction in Teamwork. Darlene Hackworth was awarded a Cornerstone Award for Dedication to Developing Others.
Congratulations to all these staff. Thanks also to those who nominated them for taking the time to share their efforts with all of Facilities Services. Kudos can be submitted any time for posting on the PDC Intranet page. Employee of the Month can be submitted any time via this link, and the Keystone Awards are reviewed annually beginning in May. Sharing your appreciation with colleagues is valuable and helps keep PDC a great place to work.
Please join us at the annual PDC Picnic on Saturday, August 8. RSVP sign up sheets are posted in common areas and will be collected on July 31. See you there; it’s a fun time for the whole family.
Finally, I would like to wish you all an enjoyable summer here in beautiful Central New York!