For Immediate Release June 16, 2005

For More Information Contact: Emily Wren, 317-274-4553

Campus Facility Services Moves to Cut Overhead Costs; Redirect Resources towards Critical Campus Missions

INDIANAPOLIS - Buildings at IUPUI will be warmer in summer and cooler in winter and offices won't be cleaned as often as Campus Facility Services moves to reduce campus overhead costs and redirect resources toward critical missions of the campus.

Campus Facility Services will move to reduce utility costs, which consume 4 percent to 5 percent of IUPUI's general fund budget.

Temperatures in classrooms, offices, hallways, lounges, vestibules and general rooms, excluding environmentally controlled research areas, are to be set at 76 in the summer and 70 during winter months.

Efforts to regulate temperature according to these guidelines have already begun in areas of buildings where temperature control can be done electronically through the building automation system, said Emily Wren, assistant vice chancellor for facilities.

Since temperatures cannot be controlled electronically in many campus buildings, other mechanism will be developed for keeping locally controlled thermostats at the same temperature, she added. In the meantime, it is critical that the campus community participate by proactively setting, and leaving set, thermostats at 76 degrees in the summer and 70 degrees in the winter, she noted.

Campus Facilities Services also will produce savings from its baseline cleaning services. It will:

• Implement a new technology for restroom cleaning that reduces by six the number of people needed for cleaning campus buildings. This savings will be realized without an alteration to services.
• Leave vacant a supervisory position. This reduction will not result in a decrease of baseline service.
• Decrease the frequency of office cleaning, eliminating the need for 10 custodians.

While there will be no reduction of services in public areas in campus buildings, offices will be attended to every other week instead of weekly, either with a vacuuming or a full cleaning. (A full cleaning includes vacuuming).

A schedule will be developed and communicated that identifies when all offices are to be fully cleaned. In this manner, the affected campus customer can prepare for the cleaning by removing items from the floor or desk top, if he or she so chooses. A hang tag will be left on the office door, after full cleaning only, as a way of communicating that the cleaning was completed. The tag will include a list of tasks performed. It will be signed by the custodian who completed the cleaning and by the supervisor who checked the work.

"Though these changes are not desirable ones that will be uniformly well-regarded, the affected services are less critical to important campus operations than any others that were considered," said Emily Wren, assistant vice chancellor for facilities. ###