The past year marked a period of transformation, resilience, and steady progress for the Department of Residential Facilities (DRF). Amidst a leadership transition, external factors beyond our control, and the realities of financial sustainability, our staff remained steadfast in their mission to support students and elevate the on-campus living experience.
We focused our efforts on what we could control: implementing key campus-wide initiatives, strengthening our internal operations, developing our workforce, and collaborating across units to improve service delivery. We successfully completed major milestones like SHIFT and Workday implementations, tackled student-centered capital projects under tight timelines, and deepened our commitment to our staff and their safety. Guided by the Student Affairs Strategic Commitments, we positioned our team to endure challenges and build a strong foundation for what lies ahead.
Key Highlights
We delivered 24/7 support, increased communication with students about outages and ongoing projects, and anticipated questions and concerns to provide timely answers and minimize disruption.
Chestertown Hall Project
We achieved a full design and construction turnaround in less than a year, including new electrical infrastructure, window A/C units, plus upgrades to bathrooms and lounges.
Restroom Upgrades
We replaced 6,000+ dispensers with touchless soap, near-premium paper towels, and high-quality, 2-ply toilet tissue to eliminate out-of-stock issues and boosts staff efficiency.
New Service Quality Inspector
Our new Service Quality Inspector audits residence halls from a student's point of view to quickly find and fix maintenance and cleanliness issues and improve staff training.
Staff Training & Development
Training is essential to our department’s success. Our training efforts will continue, with ongoing improvements to ensure our workforce is prepared to serve our students now and in the future.
98%
Housekeeping staff certified in CMI Basic Cleaning
90%
Maintenance staff who completed OSHA 10
85%
Supervisors who completed OSHA 30
Campus Partnerships
We enhanced efficiency and aligned with campus in crucial areas like Human Resources, Financial Management, and Work Management.
Elevate (Workday)
Led primarily by Financial Services and Employee Services, with support from DRF IT, our teams developed instructional materials, hosted drop-in Zoom sessions on timekeeping and procurement card verifications (PCVs), and staffed frontline training labs. These efforts supported a successful implementation in DRF and across the Division of Student Affairs.
SHIFT (AssetWorks)
Led by our Chief Administrative Officer, Work Management and Facilities Maintenance leaders as well as IT team, we developed custom apps to support implementation and delivered over 100 training sessions, providing support to DRF staff and extending it across the Division of Student Affairs and Facilities Management. Several DRF team members became valued partners among campuswide facilities professionals.
We're investing in a more responsible and skilled workforce.
Excellence in Supervision (EIS)
We piloted the Excellence in Supervision (EIS) program in collaboration with Center for Leadership & Organizational Change (CLOC).
Discrimination & Harassment Prevention
We partnered with the Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct (OCRSM) to pilot national origin discrimination and harassment prevention training.
We're smoothing out complicated logistics to improve student and staff experiences.
Summer Move-In Coordination
We held weekly planning meetings with DRL, Conference & Visitor Services, and other campus partners to align on timelines, documentation, and project readiness.
Committees
DRF staff played active roles on several committees: SHIFT, Workday, MSAC, Year End Celebration and strategic planning workgroups.