Facilities Management (FM) provides services and support to many areas of campus. We receive General Education Funding (GEF) to support the baseline service levels for the academic and administrative functions of the university. Auxiliary buildings and programs that are outside of the general education fund are not included in this budget, however, Facilities Management may provide services on a fee-for-service basis. Housing and Dining, Athletics and UIHC are the major non-GEF customers of Facilities Management. Additionally, Facilities Management provides service and support of other activities, spaces and equipment that are funded outside of the general education fund, also on a fee-for-service basis. Research equipment, artwork, animal care and capital project delivery are examples of the major groups of items that fall into this category. There are times that systems can be intertwined, so Facilities Management will create a well understood and documented agreement to describe this arrangement.
The current service level is protected by increased financial support to service additional buildings and spaces added to the GEF inventory.
Facilities Management carefully manages resources to meet service expectations and coordinate overall stewardship. These are the guiding stewardship principles:
- The ownership, talent and dedication demonstrated in the employees of Facilities Management is a critical foundation. We love being Hawkeyes.
- We are here to help advance the work and programs of the University of Iowa. Our contributions must bring value.
- Our long-term and daily stewardship plans must include safety, for our employees, students, staff, faculty and visitors.
- Our commitment to stewardship begins with campus planning, extends through the creation of new space, the alteration of existing space, operational capacity, and through to the end of life for a building. Most of our building assets will live for 50+ years, we want to build the right thing and provide the right care to provide the best future for the building.
- A well-managed and funded capital renewal and modernization plan can help control operational costs as well as well managed and funded operational programs can help control the urgency of capital renewal expenditures.
- Respect of a Total Cost of Ownership philosophy will reduce operating and capital renewal costs over the life of an asset. This includes ongoing capital investment and adherence to planning and design standards.
- A progressive, agile facilities organization with the ability to execute plans built on good data can control costs and provide more reliable services. Innovations and transformation are important to long term success, grounded in good analytics of returns on investments.
Facilities Management provides services and support to the University of Iowa through four business units; Building & Landscape Services, Utilities, Design & Construction, and Facilities Information Services. Each of these units is unique with different organizational and funding structures. Services are defined for each fee or rate structure.
Building & Landscape Services (BLS) including Custodial and Building Maintenance and Operations and Landscape, service levels are defined through task and frequency. Any services requests that are above or outside of these standards can be arranged through a fee for service system. In some circumstances, customers may supplement the base services through other resources. Coordination and assurance for code and rule compliance require working out of those situations with Facilities Management. The cost of most of the services in this category are recovered through charging the GEF budget account or the customer account if outside of baseline. The same hourly rate is used regardless if GEF or other customer. This rate includes salary, benefits and all overhead costs. The hourly rate is recalculated each year and is designed to result in as close to breakeven economics as possible, give the size of the organization and the diversity of per person or material costs.
Utilities (UIU) unit rates are charged to both GEF and non-GEF customers, which includes all associated costs including salary, benefits, operating costs, financing, fuels, administrative and compliance expenses, capital projects, etc. This rate is set on an annual basis. Each building or service point is identified with a funding source when it is added to the inventory or Utility service area. Through the baseline service definitions, utility services are outlined with respect to redundancy and reliability as well as what is required when new services are added.
Design & Construction (DC) services are a project management fee associated with each project. This fee must cover the cost of staff salary, benefits, and all overhead costs. Any service request that are outside of the standard project management services may be arranged through a fee for service system. For example, in-house design staff may provide design services that would be charged out as an hourly rate.
Facilities Information Services (FIS) work contributes to not only the work of Facilities Management but all of campus. Therefore, the salary, benefits, materials, equipment, administrative and compliance activities are funded through the overhead of FM, as well as direct allocations.
Through overhead allocation to each of these business units, all associated administrative and operational compliance activities are funded through the business structures of Facilities Management.