Reorganized facilities division positioned to support Virginia Tech’s strategic vision
From powering supercomputers in Steger Hall to ensuring the classrooms in the Data and Decision Sciences Building are clean and ready for instructional use, the over 500 employees in Virginia Tech’s facilities division help make sure the proper infrastructure is in place for cutting edge research, top notch teaching and learning, and lifelong memories to occur at the university.
This summer, the division is undergoing a series of organizational and branding changes to position itself to continue to support Virginia Tech’s land-grant mission.
The name
To help support the customer experience, the Division of Campus Planning, Infrastructure, and Facilities name will be retired. The new Division of Facilities name reflects an all-encompassing organization responsible for the care, maintenance, and development of Virginia Tech’s campuses in the commonwealth and abroad.
The mission
In the first three weeks as vice president for facilities, Dwyn Taylor set forth a charge to all division team members that emphasized the importance that care and service play as stewards of the university’s facilities assets.
“As members of the facilities team, we’re charged with the stewardship of our campus, including its buildings, grounds, and infrastructure – in Blacksburg and across the commonwealth. By caring for one another and striving for excellence, we can deliver, operate, maintain, and sustain the highest quality facilities, grounds, and infrastructure to support Virginia Tech’s mission and provide a best-in-class environment for all Hokies who live, work, and visit our campuses,” said Taylor.
Over the coming months, the division will amplify care and service principles within its strategic mission to continue to provide an optimal customer service experience for the university community.
The new organization
To better assist the university in achieving its strategic goals – including providing an affordable undergraduate education experience and becoming a globally recognized public research institution – over the next 60 days, the division will embark on a reorganization aimed at enhancing the customer experience, creating and maintaining best-in-class spaces and infrastructure, and optimizing efficiencies in workflows.
The facilities division’s full organizational chart is available online.
Taking a matrix approach, the facilities division will be composed of four major business lines – Facilities Operations; Energy and Utilities; Design and Construction; and Real Estate Management – backed by three support lines. The three supporting lines are scoped with cross-functional responsibilities to assist the business lines in the execution of initiatives and projects. These include the Offices of the University Building Official, the University Architect, and the University Engineer.
To continue the momentum of the high-performance Campus Planning and Capital Financing team, a new Design and Construction team will be created. Including both capital and non-capital construction as well as capital and non-capital design, the group will be responsible for the development and execution of all the division’s construction projects. To lead these efforts, Travis Jessee has been named interim assistant vice president for design and construction. The team will continue to partner with university partners such as the Office for Equity and Accessibility to advance critical priorities including enhancing the physical accessibility of the Blacksburg campus.
