Archives
Letters
Who's monitoring the facilities?
An open letter to the University at Buffalo Administration:
I have been a faculty member at this university for about 37 years. During my tenure, on many occasions I have observed items in need of maintenance in various buildings around campus.
On these occasions I have taken the initiative to contact campus Customer Service and request that the appropriate parties take care of the problems. I am happy to do it.
Some examples:
One semester, I taught a class in a large classroom in which all the coat-rack pegs were broken off. I can only guess how long the situation had existed. On calling Customer Service, the pegs were quickly replaced.
The walkway from Park to Baldy has beautiful wooden benches installed in it. Because of rain damage, the finish on the wood had worn off. I called customer service and the appropriate party refinished the benches. It may be that the benches again need refinishing. I don't use the walkway as much as I used to.
I use the facilities at Alumni Arena regularly to work out, and I have many times brought maintenance matters to the attention of Customer Service, usually with rapid results.
During the fall semester, I taught an evening class in the Natural Sciences Complex. The men's room was filthy—out of soap and paper towels. I may have not contacted the proper people, because the situation did not improve at all during the semester.
Though there have been many other such problems and I am glad to call problems to the attention of Customer Service, I can't help but raise the question of who monitors the state of facilities at the university. Are there other people who bring such problems to the attention of Customer Service, or am I an anomaly? If the latter is true, then what is the status of facilities I never see?
I would like to bring one recent egregious example to your attention: Just before graduation ceremonies each spring, paint crews attack Alumni Arena to make it presentable to graduates and their guests. This year, the floor of the men's locker room was painted. Whether the floor was pretreated properly or not, or the wrong paint was used, I don't know. But within a day or so of the completion of the painting, the paint began to come off. Now it is a mess.
It is a shame to neglect our university facilities. It is also a shame for the university to waste money because of this neglect and to waste money on ineffective and inferior remedies.
Sincerely,
Stanley Zionts
UB Distinguished
Professor
School of Management