Facilities Management & Planning is now Campus Planning & Operations!
In October 2018, as part of a part of a multi-year strategic planning initiative designed to transform critical processes, clarify roles and responsibilities, and create a new organization structure to enhance facilities-related support for the University’s research, academic, and student life programs, Facilities Management & Planning (FMP) was reorganized. This reorganization focused on the enhancement and separation of functions within FMP, the addition of new staff to meet the changing needs of the University, and the decoupling of the business affairs and sustainability functions out of FMP into independent departments managed by Derek Howe, Vice President, Budget, Planning & Business Affairs, and Dennis Carlberg, Associate Vice President for University Sustainability, respectively. As a result of these organizational changes, Michael Donovan, formerly the Vice President for Real Estate & Facility Services, and now the Vice President for Campus Planning & Operations assumed new responsibilities and was charged with the management of the Boston University Police Department and Emergency Management.
The Vice President for Campus Planning & Operations (CPO) is now responsible for the following areas:
- Facilities Management & Operations (FMO) – Day-to-day FMO services necessary to support the University. This division comprises more than 750 custodians and skilled trades workers who maintain and improve all three campuses to ensure a clean, attractive, safe, and sanitary environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Within this unit, this recent reorganization also resulted in the creation of a new engineering function as well as the creation of a new executive director to deal with an increasingly complex physical plant and to balance the portfolio managed by Bill Walter, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Operations.
- Planning, Design, & Construction (PDC) – Planning focuses on the University’s long-range planning, guiding campus development in a way that gives physical form to the University’s mission, vision, and programs through the effective use of human, environmental, and financial resources. The Design & Construction division provides the administrative, management, and professional services required to facilitate and accomplish new construction, renovations, and replacements of physical facilities and infrastructure. The Annual Capital Projects group oversees 200 plus projects a year valued at less than $15 million dollars each. The Major Projects group is dedicated to high-profile major renovations and new construction projects greater than $15 million.
- Informatics & Strategic Initiatives (INF) – This new unit oversees facilities-specific software applications and information management solutions supporting day-to-day operations, planning, and decision making. The group also facilitates and advances process improvement initiatives and communication strategies for the departments comprising the CPO organization and is responsible for the management of a comprehensive program for collecting, maintaining, analyzing and managing the University’s space utilization information for all academic, research and administrative units on and off campus, that occupy over 15 million gross square feet in 330+ properties domestically and internationally.
- Real Estate (RE) – Property acquisition and disposition, residential leasing, leasing of space for University use, real estate taxes, development and oversight over international real estate, oversight and processing of real estate gift transactions, and asset management of University-owned commercial properties, including all leasing and project development.
- Public Safety – University Police (BUPD) and Emergency Management (EM). BUPD is a full-time, professional law enforcement agency that provides a wide variety of public services, including first responder services, emergency medical assistance, investigating suspicious circumstances, and responding to and investigating criminal matters. Patrols are conducted by BUPD on all three Boston University campuses 24 hours a day. Emergency Management is responsible for the coordination of a comprehensive emergency management program that encompasses a full range of leadership and governance structures designed to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from any threat, emergency, or disaster that could disrupt the University’s educational program and research programs and operations.