News

Each year, on the last Saturday in April, tens of thousands of visitors flock to UMD’s College Park Campus to celebrate Maryland Day. This campus-wide celebration of learning, discovery, and fun features hundreds of free exhibitions and events. “I consider Maryland Day a Triple Crown event of campus celebrations (along with Commencement and Family-Homecoming Weekends),” said Gabe Purviance, Assistant Director of Building & Landscape Maintenance.

A quiet transformation has begun on the College Park campus as 51 distinctive vehicles - 25 vans, 23 pickups, and three SUVs - begin circulating the campus grounds. They are the first fully electric vehicles (EVs) in the Facilities Management (FM) fleet, part of a one-year pilot project, and an important step toward President Pines’ goal of a fully electric fleet by 2035.

SHIFT is a new technology-driven approach to connect campus customers with facilities operations to get repair work completed quickly and efficiently.

Approximately 20% of FM team members communicate in a language other than English. This language barrier can hinder access to important work-related information, limit career growth, and reduce confidence and engagement at work. To help address this challenge, FM is offering training opportunities to help staff sharpen their English language and communication skills. 

As we plan for the upcoming winter break, Facilities Management asks for your assistance with preparing campus buildings. With expected overnight lows in the freezing range, these actions will help conserve energy, maintain comfortable temperatures inside buildings, and protect building systems, pipes, and equipment. Please help us by taking the following steps:

If the thought of vacuuming your living room floor or cleaning your bathroom fills you with dread, consider, for a moment, the work facing Facilities Management’s (FM) Building Services team: Keeping nine million square feet in 100 campus buildings clean and healthy, from top to bottom, every single day. What does it take? How do they do it – day after day?