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Facilities Manager | Nov/Dec 2014

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Facilities Manager | november/december 2014 | 49 The other volumes cover most other areas of housing in a college or univer- sity setting where the field has grown beyond a simple room and board model. In Volume Five specific topics of Greek housing, family and graduate housing, food service operations, camp and con- ference operations, and public-private partnerships and related housing models are presented in five individual chapters written by campus and (in the case of the last chapter) private experts. Volume Five, which focuses mostly on physical operations, is one of the more appropriate volumes for a facility officer. Each chapter provides some background on the subject, but the bulk of each pres- ents good discussion of different delivery models within the subject area and how each model meets customer desires. Within the overall housing focus is plenty of material that is useful for the facility manager: what the customer wants, different ways to meet customer desires, and operational factors such as sustainability, renovation, business cases, and staffing. While some campuses may not have Greek housing or a public- private partnership (P3) arrangement, it is useful to understand the financial or operational structure for them. It could well be the case that Greek housing is disappearing while P3 housing is grow- ing, as colleges and universities respond to societal and financial demands. From a facility perspective, it's impor- tant to understand the different pressures of our colleagues on the housing side of the campus. For smaller campuses, it's easier to experience those pressures because housing may be part of the busi- ness side of the campus; larger institutions may only interact with housing through a capital construction project or when a renovation or repair is too large for the housing staff. Regardless, understanding of one's customers, and their different challenges and opportunities helps the entire organization work well. One of the biggest customers of facilities services is the housing depart- ment. Every facility officer should be interested in gaining a deeper under- standing of their current problems and possibilities for growth. I recommend this volume of Campus Housing Manage- ment, it will help you with a very large campus customer. Ted Weidner is an associate professor at Purdue University and consults on facilities management issues primarily for educa- tional organizations. He can be reached at tjweidne@purdue.edu. If you would like to write a book review, please contact Ted directly.

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