Connecticut College Annual Report 2024

AR: Would you share a bit about your education and your experience before coming to Conn?

Justin: The majority of my career was at UConn Health in Farmington. I had excellent mentors there and learned a lot about the policy and procedure side of facilities. We were way behind on communication between the departments so the vice president at the time put me in charge of improving this important area. I’ve really tried to bring a lot of what I learned there to Conn. I'd like to get to the point where facilities is a well-oiled machine. The focus of my bachelor’s degree was in engineering management where I learned to bridge the gap between technical and business sides of the work and speak the same language as a CEO or A CFO. My master’s is in construction management.

AR: When you came to Conn two years ago, what did you address first?

Justin: Organizational structure has been key to help manage the department. When I first started, I had 13 direct reports. I've reorganized into six main areas: budget and finance for facilities; projects and planning; operations; facilities; buildings and grounds services; sustainability. The key was to separate the operations from the services.

Another area that I focused on was communications, something I learned to prioritize from my time at UConn. We were working on a multi-billion dollar bioscience building with lots of new construction and lots of renovation, so communication was key. When I first came to Conn, I went on a listening tour and made it a point to try to get to almost every division to hear where we can improve. One of the main things that I heard from across the campus was communication so I really wanted to improve that. We send out a quarterly newsletter that has substantial information that includes the main points of projects and planning as well as facilities. 

AR: What are some of the big projects you’ve worked on?

Justin: When I first started, the renovation of  Palmer (Athey Center for Performance and Research at Palmer Auditorium) and the Waterfront Revitalization Project were finishing up. The  Stark Center and the Arboretum Offices on Gallows Lane had been started. The biggest project I’ve worked on from the beginning is the enabling parking lot, the renovation of Cro and the creation of Cro Boulevard. There was a conceptual design but we had to get through to schematic design and then construction documents.

AR: Can you talk a bit about how you approached this project?

Justin: First off, we created a project team, one of the processes that I implemented when I came, made up of members from all areas of the College.  On a project like this that involves the entire campus, we set a day aside to give the entire community the opportunity to provide feedback to the architects and designers. it was an opportunity for all the various groups. We started at, I think at 8:00 AM and didn't end until 10:00 PM very long day. But everybody had the opportunity to write notes, comments, look at the conceptual ideas, give their input, and then we gathered that input, literally went through everything, everything, everything.

We take the information from the architects and refine the numbers. The architects develop a breakdown of the costs-basically a list of items and associated costs. I bring that information to the project team and we review and discuss, going back and forth to understand each others’ perspectives. that could be, it's called value engineering. They give us an entire list. They kind of get an a la cart breakdown, the expenses, and then I bring that to the project team and we kind of just go back and forth and see each other's perspectives.