Miami University is a big school. With more than 22,000 students inhabiting a 600-acre campus, it’s easy to imagine the breadth of services required to keep the campus running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Between electricity, landscaping, maintenance and snow removal, upkeeping the campus takes an army. But what most people don’t know is that the logistics of these immense services largely fall onto the desk of one man: Cody Powell.
Cody Powell is the associate vice president of Physical Facilities Planning and Operations at Miami. This title is a lot of words to say that Powell oversees the maintenance and operations of the non-academic parts of campus. This includes dining services, grounds maintenance and all the less visible things in between.
“We have over 450 employees, so occupational safety is part of my job,” Powell said. “But, this also includes things like radiation safety, waste disposal, sustainability, utilities and custodial services.”
Miami has roughly 200 buildings spanning 8 million square feet and more than 200 acres of land.
On a campus this size, Powell said it takes a constant stream of daily labor to keep things running. With more than 8,000 students living on campus in 45 different residential halls, feeding them and maintaining their housing takes up a large portion of the physical facilities staff’s time. But not only do Powell and his team maintain the buildings, he also oversees construction.
“We typically have around $200 million worth of construction in planning, design or active work at any given time,” Powell said.
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While every season has its unique challenges, this time of the year is definitely when the facilities staff take their most visible role: snow removal. When a large snowstorm comes, like it did in late January, the logistical parts of Powell’s job get increasingly complex. The university is broken up into separate districts, and the ground crew then uses power tools, including plows, to clear off pathways and parking lots.
Custodial services, on the other hand, have the task of hand-shoveling the parts of campus that the plows can’t reach. This mainly includes porches, stoops and steps. When factored into the more than 200 buildings on campus, Powell said this becomes a monumental ordeal.
“It becomes a logistical challenge to make sure people are comfortable and not overworked,” Powell said. “Somebody could be on shift for 12-14 hours in extreme cold. It’s taxing, and a lot of our staff are older.”
Powell emphasized that the well-being of his staff was an important part of his job, especially for physical tasks like snow removal. He said a lot of preparation goes into making sure staff are comfortable, even setting up hotel rooms and catering meals to make sure they don’t have to drive into work through dangerous conditions.
When trudging through the snowy conditions on their way to class, many students come back to the same question: How does the university decide which paths to clear first? The answer, Powell said, isn’t simple.
“A lot depends on the time of year, the time of day and what events are going on,” he said.
However, the crew’s first focus is always on ensuring clear paths from residence halls to dining halls. When there's an event like a hockey or basketball game, they focus on clearing those areas out too.
When asked about snow removal, students have mixed opinions. Despite efforts to clear the pathways, some think it hasn’t gone far enough.
“From what I saw on campus in the past week, I don't think that snow removal has been a priority,” said Vince Sharpe, a first-year public administration major and cadet in the Naval ROTC. “There are countless walkways still covered in snow. However, I definitely didn’t know about the amount of employees helping with the removal process.”
Overall, Powell said he wants students to learn more about the importance of facilities work, and how much labor goes into making their education possible — rain or shine.
“Our goal is that students don’t think about who is taking care of campus — that you’re just here studying, doing your thing and the place operates well,” Powell said. “I’m proud of our team and the effort they put forth to make such a nice environment for students.”
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