Facilities Operations

The Facilities Operations shared services include assisting universities' operations in facilities management, environmental health and safety, emergency management, and police functions. The assistance provides a broad array of services including:

Maintenance and establishment of strategies, policies, and procedures related to facilities planning, building inventory, space guidelines, capital facilities investments, capital budgets, real estate, life-cycle maintenance, repair, renovation, and demolition of facilities
Maintenance and establishment of processes for necessary approvals by the Board of Governors, General Assembly, Governor's Budget Office, and others. This information is documented and maintained in the PASSHE Facilities Manual.

Facilities Data Management and Reporting:

Collection and reporting of facilities data collection and reporting, database administration, and quality control. Data collection and reporting encompasses a variety of requirements including mandatory reporting for Commonwealth insurance, annual Key'93 expenditure reporting, periodic roadway inventory reporting to PDOT, calculations for various benchmarking calculations, and sustainability assessments. The facilities database includes a statutorily required building space inventory and location information, facilities infrastructure inventory, and space guidelines calculations.

Environmental Health and Safety, Police, and Emergency Management:

Participation and representation of PASSHE universities in emergency planning and emergency operations at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Drafting, submitting and managing grants related to these functions. Grant management includes ongoing inventory tracking and reporting requirements.
Assistance in leading constituent groups, information sharing, contract coordination, meeting and issue coordination. When beneficial, coordinating System- procured resources such as MSDS Online and Hazardous Waste Disposal contracts.
Monitoring and assisting the System and universities with the requirements of statutes, policies, and procedures/standards that govern the police and environmental, health and safety related operations. These include university accident illness and prevention plans, assistance with workers compensation reporting, changes with NFPA standards, indoor air quality issues, and hazardous material issues.

Energy and Engineering Consulting Services:

Energy planning and procurement services for natural gas and electric accounts for all System universities. Representation of universities in energy strategic planning with DGS in areas including natural gas, electricity, coal, and alternate energy initiatives.
On-call engineering consulting services for utility and building systems. Service areas include electrical; mechanical; water distribution, collection and treatment; and related operations, maintenance, and planning.
Energy and utility system strategic planning and its implementation.
Utilities usage data collection and reporting.
Specialized training for managers, supervisors, and staff.
Contract management, invoice processing, strategic direction, and coordination of services (when needed) with Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute.

Facilities Benchmarking and Analysis:

Data collection, validation, analysis, modeling, and benchmarking related to all aspects of facilities utilization, operations, maintenance, and investment. Examples of advisory services include backlog analysis and modeling of life-cycle investment needs; analysis of E&G and auxiliary facility profiles; and staffing, budget, and work order analyses. Data has been valuable in driving changes in facilities' efficiency and in justifying funding preservation and increases.
Management of the Gordian (Sightlines) contract to provide the benchmarking service. That contract management includes vendor management, invoice processing, strategic direction guidance, and coordination of services (when needed).