With homecoming season in full swing, there comes a lot of preparation and a lot of time that is put into the efforts of running an event like this. With many things needed to be set up and the amount of equipment needed to be moved, you would have to think, who does all this work? Well, I can answer that for you. Within the Kelsey Building, just located a little off the main campus that holds the Factory Theatre is the home to Facilities.
Need dorm furniture taken out of your room? Facilities takes care of it. Need twenty 6-foot tables for an event and have it set up the way you want it? Facilities will happily do it for you. Anything that needs to be moved, fixed, trimmed, or checked; facilities can usually do it all. I actually have the pleasure to work at facilities this semester and I can tell you that I’m happy to come into work every day because of the people I work with and my bosses being really understanding. But to get a different look at what Facilities really does I asked my coworker and roommate Jesse Gifford his take on where he works and how he’s liked it so far.
Jesse Gifford, who is a senior criminal justice major, has worked for facilities for the last two years and has really enjoyed his time working there and knows that homecoming is the busiest week of the year. When asking him about homecoming and if facilities do a lot for the school before and after homecoming he says that facilities do a lot for the school and that without them that a majority of school events wouldn’t be able to happen. “I feel like, without facilities, no major events can go on. We set up, we tear down, we coordinate when to deliver certain items and stuff like that. Homecoming was a big deal and we had a really busy schedule and managed our time well with big deliveries, such as tables and chairs at different locations.”
With having to schedule your time, Gifford says that his schedule is really flexible and that his bosses, Tara Thompson and Mark Ownes, are also really understanding about his class schedule and that he is able to work around it. “It’s one of the few jobs that I know of on campus that really works with your class schedule and really works around it and really flexible with your hours. They’re really, really convenient like that.”
Even with being a student worker you are going to work with other students and also people who have a full-time job there. Gifford believes that the environment that they work in is great and also there are great people that he works with.
“It’s a great atmosphere. Everybody’s here to earn a living and for us, student workers are to pay for school. So we take our work seriously, we work hard and every single day, regardless of how cold it is or how hot it is or how difficult the task may be, we’re grateful because we’re going to have money in our pocket. It can go toward books and classes and stuff like that. So no matter how bad things may look from the outside, inside the camaraderie helps out the job and I mean we’re working hard and using our time well.” With Gifford enjoying his job I asked him if he would recommend if working at facilities is is worth it and he says, ” Absolutely. I think it would start from the top of the hierarchy as well. Both bosses, Mark Owens and Tara Thompson are very, very great individuals. And not only are they great individuals they’re excellent bosses. They really relate on a personal level to all their employees and they work around their schedules and they really do a lot for everybody who’s a part of their staff.”
Working for facilities seems like hard work at the end of the day but as you see that this student worker loves his job and knows that he wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.
Media by Dylan Goodyear.
