The Town Hall Crier

Didn’t attend the Fall Town Hall Meeting? No worries, we Gaucho back!

• Willie Brown opened the Town Hall by welcoming all employees in attendance. This may be our last Town Hall as ‘Housing & Residential Services’ as we will be adding more people from Auxiliary Enterprises. New employees were then introduced by various units.

• Feras Maidaa reviewed the wellness newsletter and activities for the Fall Quarter, including yoga, circuit training, the Maintain Don’t Gain workshop, UC Food Day, and sleep hygiene workshops.

• Chris Johnson and Danny Mann gave an overview of Green Dot, an intervention model that’s about to roll out to campus. The Green Dot model targets all community members as potential bystanders to be proactive in order to make our community safer.

• Lisa Slavid gave an update on the 2015-16 Strategic Plan Outcomes and partnering for success with students. 

Update on H&RS from Willie Brown

• Willie gave an update on H&RS, and the impact of his promotion to Associate Vice Chancellor of Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises. It is a high period of growth for our department, as we’re adding more staff and buildings, and housing more students. In 2015-16 we will focus on: The Residential Experience of our Students, Shifting Priorities for Success, Strategic Plan Implementation, Sustainable Practices, Organizational Transition & Growth Management, Intrapreneurial Vision (adapt private sector best practices), Organizational Innovation, Diversity & Educational Equity, Student Housing Development, Partnering & Outreach, Core & Leadership Competency Development, Technology Management, Asset Management & Facility Renewal, and Professional Organization Participation.

• We currently have three major projects in various stages of delivery: Sierra Madre Apartments, San Joaquin Apartments, and The Club Renovation & Guest House Addition. All of our projects are targeted to achieve LEED gold certification or better. Over the next 18 months, we’ll be adding 2500 beds (1000~ San Joaquin, 500~ Sierra Madre and 1000~ Tropicana portfolio) which totals 11,000 beds. We’ll be housing more than 50% of the student body. (When Willie started it was about 20%.) Until recently, our asset value was $900 million. It’s now $1.5 billion. We don’t have a signed agreement to manage the three Tropicana properties yet, but he anticipates that we’ll assume management in June 2016.

• The new organization will include eight integrated departments reporting to Willie: Business & Financial Planning, Campus Dining-Residential, Campus Dining-Cash, Residential & Community Living, Residential Operations, University Bookstore, University Center & Events Center Administration, and Transportation & Parking Services. There are currently 470 full-time employees in H&RS, and 120 in Auxiliary Enterprises. He anticipates that we’ll have to hire an additional 50 employees in the future. As far as organizational changes, there will be an exploratory period of 4-6 months where we maintain our focus on positive outcomes for students and staff, and restructure as necessary to accommodate the larger organization.

Housing Trophies and YES Presentations:

• Sally Vito presented Andy Johnson with the Building Partnerships & Helping Others Succeed award, Carlos Campos presented Scott Suttner with the being Environmentally Sensitive award, and Eric Zobel presented Julie Levangie with the “We Are About” trophy.

• YES! prizes and gift certificates were raffled and presented.