Facilities Services

Facilities Services Weekly

July 27, 2026

Several men in hard hats and work clothes gathered around a large metal trench box, with chains hanging from above and heavy machinery in the background.

Announcements

Building Services

Operations

Maintenance

Comm & Info

Utilities

Construction

Safety Stand Down

Announcements

Football Training Dates Announced

Go ahead and mark your calendars to attend one session of football training if you work to support game days. Please note the location change from the FSC to the SU for the first shift sessions. Email [email protected] to sign up for the session of your choosing. 

Wednesday, August 26 Times/Locations 
0830 – SU 362A/B 
1000 – SU 362A/B 
1400 – SU 362A/B 
1700 – FSC 101/102 
2200 – FSC 101/102 

Thursday, August 27 Times/Locations 
1030 – SU 362A/B 
1400 – SU 362A/B 

BEST Coffee Truck at FSC 

BEST Coffee Truck will be here tomorrow (7/28 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.)

They’ll be set up outside Central Supply Warehouse for easy pickup. You can either walk up and order or pre-order using the link in the email reminder and select a pickup time between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. 

FS Wellness Fair

Mark your calendars for our 2026 Facilities Services Wellness Fair on Thursday, August 20th from 11a to 2p in FSC 101/102. Vendors will be on site for personal training, spiritual wellness, information on MedSpa services and nutrition, and more! Come and go as your schedule allows. Questions? Reach out to [email protected].

Quarterly Departmental Meeting 

Our next Quarterly Departmental Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 6th at 4pm. Go ahead and mark your calendars now. If you have questions you’d like to submit for consideration, please send them to Sam at [email protected] or to Mike Brady.

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Building Services

Andy Holt Tower

  • Cleaned carpet in Lobby and Hallways on 4th floor 
  • Placed new matting when you exit elevator on 6th,5th, and 4th floor  

Communications/SS 

  • Knocked down cobwebs on windows in staircases inside/out 
  • Knocked down cobwebs in corner glass where meets 4th floor at staircases 
  • 3rd floor Lobby carpet cleaned Communications 
  • 4,3,2,and 1st floor ride on scrubber was used 
  • Carpet cleaned and rooms cleaned after remodel 294 and 295 

Claxton

  • 349 carpet cleaned room detailed 
  • 350 carpet cleaned room detailed 
  • 331 carpet cleaned room detailed 

Hesler 

  • Detail cleaned room 433 
  • Scrubbed/wax room 317 

Dabney-Buehler  

  • 674 all cabinets/drawers cleaned out, vacuumed out and wiped down in/out, countertops cleaned, floors swept and scrubbed, windows and sills dusted and cleaned 
  • 5th and 6th floors ride on scrubber used to clean all hallway floors 
  • 569B carpet was cleaned after leak 
  • 565 kitchen floor was scrubbed with machine 
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Operations

Moving & Event Services

  • No report received

Sustainability

  • What improved last week?
    • Recycling operations generated significant revenue through shipments of aluminum, OCC cardboard, and pallets while continuing to divert valuable materials from the landfill. Compost operations improved campus service by washing bins at several collection locations, hosted a sustainability tour for nine Tennessee State University students, and received positive campus recognition through a Daily Beacon feature on UT’s composting program.
  • What declined last week?
    • Compost operations were impacted by temporary staffing shortages following the end of an AmeriCorps term, the departure of a student worker, and a staff vacation, reducing operational capacity.
  • Where is attention needed this week?
    • Maintaining organic waste collection and compost operations remains a priority, along with onboarding new staff, supporting educational programming at UT Gardens’ Plant to Plate Camp, and preparing for the start of the fall semester.
  • What changes are happening this week?
    • Michael Lay will join the Compost Crew as the new Compost Operations Specialist, with onboarding and training beginning this week. Fall Federal Work-Study positions will also be posted.
  • Key Metrics
    • Recycling: 40 aluminum bales shipped (projected value >$41,800), 19.56 tons of OCC shipped ($2,445), one trailer of pallets shipped ($835.75)
    • Composting: 1,500 gallons of grease water, 5.55 tons of animal waste, 2.03 tons of food waste, and 1.78 tons of landscaping waste composted (excluding shredded pallets), plus 20 cubic yards of shredded pallets diverted for use as a compost carbon source.
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Maintenance & Repair

Housing

What was accomplished? 

  • The A/C shop got one of the cooling towers up and running.  

Athletics

What’s Improved?

  • HVAC, at TBA was improved for the last show temps were regulated nicely.  
  • HVAC, at Pratt Pavilion improved with ERU repairs.  
  • New RGBA Lighting installed at Regal Soccer. 

What’s Declined?  

  • Nothing declined.

This Week’s Attention? 

  • Preparation for upcoming football season. 
  • Preparation for upcoming events all over zone.  
  • Preparation for camps at Lindsey Nelson.  
  • Preparation for a rental swim meet at Allan Jones.  

What Changes Are Happening This Week? 

  •  No changes happening.

Dining

What’s Improved?

  • At RTD – Repair pulper proximity switch, PM/ treat floor drains, repair flat top grill, dish machine drain manifold leak, repaired coffee brewer, delimed combi oven, repaired fryer and chargrill, unclogged coke drain, repaired meat slicer, unclogged coke drain.
  •  At Stokely – Replaced dicer and slicer blades, feet, bumpers, omelet station burners blowout, auger floor drains, investigated the issue and ordered parts for walk-in cooler. 
  • At Student Union – Repaired sliding door on walk-in freezer, Rational oven drain correction, repair wiring on walk-in freezer in BOG, caulked hot wells in Panda, PM roof units, chain snaked floor drains, repaired fryer in CFA, replaced wall outlets, repaired lights in hoods and coolers. 
  •  At HUB – PM exhaust fans and make-up air units 
  • Nursing Hillside café and NRAB Orange acres – hood cleaning 

What’s Declined?  

  • No noticeable decline observed.

This Week’s Attention? 

  • Making sure all equipment gets necessary attention before opening.

What Changes Are Happening This Week? 

  • No changes at this point.

Zone 4

  • No report received

Zone 5

  • No report received

Zone 6

What was accomplished? 

  • Worked on cleaning gutters at Claxton and window issues at UTPD and lighting upgrades at the student union. 
  • We are working on getting some pm’s and trying to hire a new team member. 
  • Need some roof repairs and to finish cleaning gutters. 

Zone 7

  • No report received

Zone 8

What declined last week?  

  • Our chill water loop from the Plant Biotech is having issues, especially in the Animal Science and Food Science buildings.  We also had a power flicker that caused many different issues in several buildings. 

Where is attention needed this week?  

  • We will work with our AC shop to try to improve our chill water situation on the Plant Biotech loop.  We also continue to work through many controls issues with drives after last weeks power flicker. 

What changes are happening this week? 

  • We will continue to prepare as Fall semester ’26 rapidly approaches. 

Building HVAC

What improved last week? 

  • SERF AHU-4.  

What declined last week?

  • nothing

Where is attention needed this week?

  • SERF, Student Aquatics, Brenda Lawson, Arena, Stadium. 

What changes are happening this week?

  • Coil replacements, CHW coil repairs, split system installs, VRF system repairs, water leak repairs, and refrigerant system repairs.

Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?

  •  SERF AHU-4, Claxton AHU-104, Arena AHU-3. 

Building Electrical

What improved last week?

  • Serf new power feeds for labs and implementing a plan for Nielsen Physics Temp AC power.

What declined last week?

  • Working on campus with standard pole lights that are out. 

Where is attention needed this week?

  • Completing SERF power drops and power for the new furnace. 

What changes are happening this week? 

  • Dividing teams so we can have extra tech working on newer work orders. 

Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?

  •  Planning the power feeds for the Temp AC for Neilsen Physics. 

Building Plumbing

What improved last week?

  • Continual improvements to the Concord building. 

What declined last week?

  • The team is actively working to fill open positions, with a focus on hiring experienced employees and prioritizing critical senior roles. 

Where is attention needed this week?

  • Continue improvements to the Concord Building and competition of ongoing work at Stokley Hall. 

What changes are happening this week? 

  • Actively interviewing qualified candidates to fill critical roles and enhance the team’s overall performance. 

Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?

  • Complete critical repairs and restore services for remaining outages at Stokely Hall. 

Lock & Key Services 

What improved last week?

  • We had an increase in completed work orders to 43 last week up from 29 the previous week as we prepare for Fall.  

What declined last week?

  • We had no significant decline in Lock and Key last week, 

Where is attention needed this week?

  • Install new cores in Torch Bearer Hall. 

What changes are happening this week? 

  • We are installing our first set of manufacturer pinned cores to support new buildings.  This will allow us to fix the labor cost when bringing on new buildings and limit the need for Over Time on these projects.  Additionally, this will allow the project to pay for the labor to pin the lock cores as it is quoted into the cost of the product.  
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Comm & Info

WOM & IT

WOM

  • Serviced 225 individual tickets last week 
  • After hours services testing due to weekend OIT Network outage 

FSIT

  • Serviced 121 individual tickets last week 
  • Began multi-department testing of real time translation solution 
  • Refinements and additions to Autopilot system 
  • Onsite for OIT network outage over the weekend 

Training

What did we learn last week? 

  • 34 people, or 5% of the department, attended Tech Week sessions last week!  We had 17 different sessions over the course of the week, and the best attended session was The Student Union’s Geekiest Corner – The VolTech presentation by David Alcorn. Thank you to everyone who came to hear our campus partner speak on the benefits of buying your tech from them. If you enjoyed TechWeek, please take a moment to thank Angelina, Beth, and Hope for the work they did to put on a wonderful event. We hope to see you back again next year, with more friends and coworkers, to learn about technology!  

What challenge can training help us solve? 

  • With KUB Natural Gas Leak Detection and Football training coming up, we can help get you ready for all the different requirements of your job. Please let us know what job skills your teams need to gain proficiency in so we can assist in finding the appropriate training resources.  

What do employees need to know this week? 

  • Next week you can participate in KUB Natural Gas Leak Detection training! Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, from 8:30 to 10:30 at the KUB Middlebrook Pike Campus. Interested in signing up? Let us know at [email protected].  

What best practice should we share across teams? 

  •  Do you have an onboarding practice you use for your new hires that you think others in the department should also use? If so, let us know! We’d love to help share the things that work well with everyone. 
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Utilities & Energy

A/C Utilities

  • What improved last week?
    • Repaired Pratt Pavilion chiller 
    •  Repaired Hesler cooling tower 2B 
    • Hesler – chiller house clean up 
    • SMC – repair chillers 
    • Mossman – installed vane actuator on chiller no. 2 
    • Strong – installed new cooling tower motor 
  • What declined last week?
    • ANRB – cooling tower gearbox failure 
    • Strong – chiller no.1 failed I/O board 
  • Where is attention needed this week?
    • Strong – chiller repair 
    • Campus chiller plants and cooling towers 
    • Baseball – weight room AC unit installation 

Electrical – High Voltage Utilities

  • No report received

Plumbing Utilities

  • What improved last week? 
    • The team successfully completed all work at the Humanities building while also attending a training class. The SERF gas line project has been completed, and work has begun on the shed located up the hill.
  • What declined last week?
    •  Nothing has declined. The team continues to work diligently to stay on top of work orders. Overall, teamwork remains strong, and collaboration has been excellent. 
  • Where is attention needed this week?
    • Install the cleanout and cover at the Arena, install the water meter at the Arena, and prepare the trailers for the Sorority project. 
  • What changes are happening this week?
    • Staying on top of work orders and completing jobs efficiently and promptly. 
  • Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?
    • Hess Hall, Min Kao, and Hodges Library.

Steam Plant

  • What improved last week?
    • Continued work with contractors on new boiler installation. Addressed packing issue on DA tank drain valve. Cleaned / replace air filters on air compressor   Cleaned and replaced condensate strainer. Replaced pressure regulators on softeners. Repaired leak on dual softeners  
  • Where is attention needed this week? 
    • Will work on cleanup and improvement projects around the plant. Working on steam trap for condensate return 
  • What changes are happening this week?
    • Working on any issues that arise and working with contractors on the new boiler.  
  • Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?
    • Repair on hdpe piping

Building Automation Systems

  • What improved last week?  
    • Graphics alterations and programming issues at SMC. 
    • Pratt Pavilion Humidity Issues 
  • What declined last week?  
    • Old Invensys systems. 
    • Mossman Labs 
    • TBA Air Handlers 
  • Where is attention needed this week?  
    • A&A work orders 
    • ANRB Chilled Water SNE power supply issues. 
  • What changes are happening this week?  
    • Hesler Phoenix valve issues are being addressed. 
    • Mossman Lab heating issues 
    • Phoenix Controls Training 
  • Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed?
    • TBA Fire Alarm/Pneumatic Smoke Damper repairs 
    • Thornton Hot Water System repairs. 

Electrical Control and Fire Alarms

  • What improved last week?
    • Completing Deficiencies to get fire panels up to code  
  • What declined last week? 
    • Several batteries in fire panels 
  • Where is attention needed this week? 
    • Assisting contractors with fire alarm and sprinkler testing 
    • Continue working on leak detection at IAMMS 
  • What changes are happening this week?
    • Normal repairs and disables 
  • Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed? 
    • Correcting deficiencies at multiple buildings  

Commissioning

  • No report received

Chemical Treatment

  • What improved last week?
    • Housing Closed Loop system health, equipment installs for TBA, SERF 
  • What declined last week? 
    • Not declined more than it already is, but Nursing loop is being opened to Claxton chilled loop 
  • Where is attention needed this week? 
    • Chill water closed loops for TBA, Claxton, and SERF  
  • What changes are happening this week?
    • Ability to feed chemicals into buildings that need it. As well as extra makeup water capacity in Claxton loop to prevent “drying” out the system. JARTU cooling tower monitoring/feeding install  
  • Any critical repairs or outages that were addressed? 
    •  Claxton 
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In-house Construction

  • New projects received: 7
  • New estimate requests received:  4
  • Construction Projects of Note:
    • Zeanah Engineering Building 
      • Removing student workspaces in room 273 and adding new faculty offices 
    • Morgan Hall 
      • Refreshing the finishes in the corridors including ceilings, paint, furniture, flooring and graphics 
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Safety

Final Push: Safety Comes First   

As we enter the final push to prepare campus for the return of our students, I want to remind everyone that no deadline is more important than your safety or the safety of those around you. 

Over the past several weeks, we have seen an increase in vehicle accidents involving university vehicles, many of them involving one UT vehicle striking another. These incidents are preventable, but only if we remain focused and avoid becoming complacent during this busy time. 

Please take a few extra moments before moving your vehicle: 

  • Walk around your vehicle and look for hazards, pedestrians, equipment, or other vehicles. 
  • Eliminate distractions. Put your phone away and give your full attention to driving. 
  • Slow down and be aware of the increased traffic and activity across campus. 
  • Remember that backing, parking, and maneuvering in tight spaces require extra caution. 

The pace of work increases this time of year, and it is easy to feel rushed. However, taking a minute to work safely is far better than spending hours or even days dealing with an accident or injury. 

Make safety a part of every task, every trip, and every day. If you don’t think you have enough time to do the job safely, you certainly won’t have enough time to deal with the consequences of an accident or injury. 

Thank you for your continued hard work and dedication as we prepare campus for another successful academic year. Let’s finish strong, look out for one another, and make sure everyone goes home safely each day. 

FS Safety [email protected] 

865-974-9833 

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