Spotlight on Facilities

The Facilities Department at USU is one of the broader groups at the university. From planning, design and construction to maintenance – both indoors and out – to landscape operations and snow removal, the employees who work for Facilities play a vital behind-the-scenes role in the day-to-day functioning of the university.

With more than 500 acres of land and 100 buildings to maintain, there’s a lot of time and effort that goes into beautifying USU’s campus, and that hard work is frequently recognized. In a May 2017 New York Times article, Utah State was named the most beautiful college in the state of Utah. USU received similar accolades in an August 2019 article in Travel + Leisure.

Most recently, USU’s Landscape, Operations and Maintenance group (LOAM) within Facilities has been recognized for their patriotic display of mowing the American flag into the Quad for the Fourth of July.

It is this LOAM group that “provides an aesthetically pleasing, efficiently maintainable, diverse landscape to attract the best students, faculty and staff to USU.” It’s not just the perfectly manicured flower beds, the tulips in front of Old Main or fancy designs on the Quad, though. They provide maintenance for utilities, roads and parking lots on campus. And, during the winter months, they keep campus open and accessible with snow removal. “We love storms where we can get in early,” said LOAM manager Shane Richards in a 2017 article in the Utah Statesman. “If we can get in at four in the morning we can almost do all that in three hours and have campus beautiful and ready to go.”

When the snow melts, keeping the campus beautiful in a sustainable way is also important for the LOAM crew – especially during years of intense drought such as this one. They have a drought response plan that goes from Phase 1 (abnormally dry) to Phase 5 (exceptional) drought, and alter their care accordingly. Recent landscape initiatives such as rock gardens, native plant gardens, and drip irrigation have drastically helped reduce landscape water use on campus, and multiple rainwater gardens are planned over the next five years.

So, the next time you’re walking across campus, admiring the flower beds, or enjoying a clear sidewalk after a snowstorm, make sure and give a wave to one of the many Facilities workers at Utah State and thank them for all the hard they do.