Campus Facilities

Facilities management’s highly qualified and dedicated operations and maintenance staff pride themselves on providing outstanding customer service through clear communications, teamwork and staying abreast of current industry trends and technologies. 

Operations and maintenance services 

• Electric power and lighting
• Building heating and cooling (HVAC)
• Plumbing and domestic water service (hot and cold)
• Lock repairs
• Carpentry 
• Food service equipment maintenance and repairs
• Snow removal
• Security camera maintenance
• Turf field maintenance/care/snow removal

Contracted services

• Landscaping and ground maintenance
• Pest control
• HVAC water treatment
• High voltage switch gear maintenance
• Emergency generator maintenance
• Elevator maintenance
• Scoreboard maintenance 

Service requests or work orders

All service needs and work orders should be submitted through the facilities work order TMA system. All emergency service needs should be submitted by a phone call to the service desk during regular working hours and to campus security after hours, weekends and holidays.

The facilities department provides custodial care and cleaning services for all residence halls, classrooms, offices and building spaces on campus. Custodial staff are scheduled for 24-hour coverage of the campus, seven days a week. These services also include conference and athletic events support and food service venue support. 

• Conference event support/staffing 
• Athletic events support/staffing
• Scheduled cleaning of all campus buildings
• Manage campus recycling efforts
• Manage blood-borne pathogen clean-up
• Solid waste removal
• Manage pest control services
• Emergency flood or other facility emergency response

The campus ground maintenance is contracted to BrightView, who are responsible for the curb appeal of the campus through scheduled ground care activities from March through November.

The following activities are seasonally scheduled through facilities*:

• Weekly mowing - Thursdays (rain day - Friday)
• Lawn fertilizing/weed control
• Flower bed plantings - three times per season
• Mulching - two times per season
• Campus tree arborists assessment - Fall semester
• Tree maintenance (limb up/tree removal/planting) - Fall semester 
• Emergency storm damage service - as needed
• Landscape bed maintenance and shrub pruning -two times per season

To the extent possible, all landscaping maintenance activities are schedule around major campus events including Convocation, Commencement, admission events and student activities outdoor events. 

Snow removal

Snow and ice removal activities are performed by the facilities department staff. During snow removal events, facilities personnel are assigned solely to snow removal duties. This may delay routine response to work orders. Emergency work requests will be addressed during these periods on a priority and severity basis. 

Snow removal parking and vehicle relocations

During campus snow events all faculty, staff and students may be required to relocate their personal vehicles from one parking area to another parking both prior to a large storm or following lot clearing of one area so other areas can be cleared. Facilities works closely with Campus Security to assess conditions and Campus email and text notifications will sent to all Hood community members.

Please comply with these requests so clearing operations may continue and the campus can be opened and/or cleared in the least amount of time.

Snow/ice storm safety

While every effort is made to provide a safe campus, at times winter weather provides safety challenges like slippery pavement, sidewalk and stairway surfaces. All persons should expect slippery surfaces and adjust their walking patterns accordingly, wear appropriate footwear for outside conditions and report any unsafe areas to the facilities department or campus security.

Winter weather chemical treatment

Following snow removal activities, facilities staff applies an ice melt chemical in proportion to melting capability of outside conditions at the time of applications with the objective of providing safe conditions in a reasonable amount of time. Factors affecting surface melting include outside temperatures, amount of cloud cover verses clear skies and sun warming of surfaces. Again, it is imperative that the Hood community traverse the campus with extreme care following snow/ice events.

Snow/ice clearing priorities

Major snow events result in prioritized campus clearing pattern of snow removal. The first priority is to maintain open primary campus roadways in case emergency vehicles need access to the campus in addition to providing an open pathway for resident students to access the dining hall. Facilities manages a snow removal plan that aims to get the campus "open" at the earliest possible time and then continue clearing operations until all campus roadways, parking lots and sidewalks are cleared and safe.

Pest control

The facilities department contracts with a local pest control company for the following services:

• Weekly treatment of campus buildings and food service areas.
• Tri-annual check for bed bugs in on-campus housing buildings (treatment as needed).
• Emergency service for insect, bee, wasp infestations.
• Rodent control.

Wild animal removal (trapping/release)

The facilities department contracts with a wild animal trap/release vendor who will humanely trap and remove from campus raccoons, squirrels, fox, ground hogs, etc. and release them a significant distance from the campus. Please report any sightings of wild animals on campus or evidence inside any campus building of any animal presence to Facilities. 

Warning: Do not feed or leave food for campus wildlife. This may attract unwanted or dangerous animals to campus. 

Snow removal

Facilities management oversees and manages the snow and ice removal program for the campus. Department staff are scheduled for snow removal duties as storm predictions and Frederick County emergency management alerts indicate. Depending on the size of the storm and the depth of the snowfall, the campus will be cleared on a priority basis, with the first priority being to maintain emergency vehicle ingress/egress pathways and also provide cleared walkways for access to the dining hall for residential students. All other campus clearing will occur as decisions are made regarding campus opening or closure schedule/announcements by the president and campus security.

Residential students, faculty and staff may be requested to relocated/consolidate vehicles to specific lots prior to a storm and then relocate their vehicles to cleared lots once space becomes available in other lots.

Snow shovels are available for sign-out at he campus security desk in Whitaker.

The following services are also scheduled through the facilities management office:

• Moderate moving services
• Campus grounds trash removal 
• Metal recycling
• Office package delivery

To schedule event set-up or moving services, submit a work request here.