FAYETTEVILLE,
Ark. — Sustainability issues shared the schedule with supervisor training, workshops on topics like “Humor in the
Workplace” and a facilities management “makeover” when the University of
Arkansas facilities management department hosted the seven-day Central
Association of Physical Plant Administrators training symposium and business
exposition held Oct. 18-24. More than 200 facilities professionals attended
from higher education institutions in the eight central states and the province
of Manitoba, Canada.
In addition, representatives from some 75-80 businesses exhibited, with sponsored
events available to discuss the latest products on the market to meet the new
demands on those responsible for maintaining and improving campus
infrastructure and operations. The conference brought nearly 400 visitors to
downtown Fayetteville and the university.
The event
included a four-day, toolkit course for first-time supervisors, two days of
CAPPA committee meetings, two days of professional workshops and three extended
time periods to visit with exhibitors. There were also numerous opportunities to
tour the University of Arkansas
campus, visit northwest Arkansas
from Altus to Eureka Springs and
sample the restaurants and night life of Fayetteville.
“We definitely
made an economic impact for our city while also providing a quality
learning/networking experience for our visitors,” said Mike Johnson, associate
vice chancellor for facilities and the chief organizer of the event. “We
calculated that the conference provided almost 1,000 room nights for the
Cosmopolitan and several other local hotels, and it turned out that 70 to 80
percent of the people who attended had never visited Fayetteville
or northwest Arkansas before. So,
in addition to the business of the conference, it was also a great opportunity
to show off our campus, our city and this special corner of our great state.”
The workshops
also gave the facilities management department a chance to talk about what the University
of Arkansas has done to “makeover”
its entire operation, as well as the steps being taken to create a sustainable
campus. Sessions on pollution
prevention, energy conservation, “green cleaning” and the Presidents Climate
Commitment were among the sustainability topics covered. The university was
among the first 100 institutions in the country to sign on to the Presidents
Climate Commitment last February. Johnson said that facilities management was
looking at conservation, sustainability and other “green” issues prior to that.
“We’ve found that
we’re in the top third of schools when it comes to sustainability issues,
possibly higher among the bigger state institutions. So we have a lot of
information to share. But many campuses are also looking at ways to reorganize
their facilities management departments, refocus on more business-oriented
approaches and they were very interested in the 're-engineering process’ that
we went through over the past seven years, and the lessons to be learned from
that experience.”