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Flood Damage at University of Iowa

In a note to fellow APPA members, Don Guckert of the University described the damage to his Midwestern campus. Read Don's note. Visit the blogs about the flooding on the U of Iowa site and see photos.

"The Iowa River flows through the middle of our campus and simultaneously divides and unifies the east and west campuses. Within the flood plain more than 20 buildings (2.5 million square feet) representing one-sixth of our university were directly impacted. The flooding was minimal in some buildings with only basement mechanical space flooded. Others, including Hancher Auditorium, the Iowa Memorial Union, and our Power Plant sustained substantial damage...

"In the end, much of the campus was lost, but much was saved. But more importantly, the University community grew closer. Exhausted employees of the University were emotionally moved by the outpouring of volunteers who demonstrated a deep love for the University. Students, faculty, deans, staff, families, local business leaders, uniformed National Guard, Amish in straw hats, and county jail inmates in orange jump suits worked side-by-side for hours in the sun, heat and sometimes rain in a cooperative and spirited effort to do what they could to save the campus."

The APPA staff and board extends sympathy and wishes for quick recovery to all those affected by the flooding.

APPA President-Elect, Bill Elvey, Featured on "Five Minutes With..."

Bill Elvey, Director for Facilities Management, Engineering, Planning & Construction
The University of Texas at Dallas and APPA's President-Elect, was recently featured in a "Five Minutes With..." FaciltiesNet podcast. Elvey discusses facilities' role in campus safety and security.

APPA's VP of Professional Affairs, Kevin Folsom, Featured on "Five Minutes With..."

Kevin Folsom, director of facilities and plant operations at Dallas Theological Seminary and APPA's vice president for professional affairs was recently featured in a "Five Minutes With..." FacilitiesNet podcast. In this five-minute discussion, Folsom talks about establishing sustainable facilities.

Sebesta Blomberg Makes ENR Top 500

Engineering Design-Record ranked long-time APPA Business Partner Sebesta Blomberg 357 on
the Top 500 Design Firms for 2008. ENR ranks companies according to revenue for design services performed in 2007 in millions of US dollars.

Sebesta Blomberg is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota, with offices located
throughout the United States. For more information, please visit www.sebesta.com.

Illinois College Residence Hall Achieves LEED Certification

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded LEED Silver Certification to Illinois College’s newest residence hall on March 25. The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation provided a $100,000 grant that helped Illinois College pursue and qualify for LEED Silver status. Only nine other college residence halls in the U.S. have achieved LEED Silver Certification.

The Illinois College Residence Hall opened in September 2006 and accommodates 200 students. It was designed to reduce standard energy consumption by 27 percent through measures that include double-pane, thermally improved windows; efficient wall and roof insulation; a lighting system that utilizes low-watt fluorescent lamps, along with the use of occupancy sensors; a water system designed for low-flow and low-flush sink and toilet fixtures; heating and cooling systems with high-efficiency rooftop units; and a control system that reduces HVAC energy consumption and features a variety of setbacks and comfort controls.

For more information, visit www.ic.edu.

President Alan Bigger Named to KaiScience Advisory Board

KaiScience has announced the formation of the Cleaning Industry Advisors (CIA), an elite group of industry veterans and experts assembled to provide input on the development of cleaning processes that produce better, healthier and synergistic results as confirmed by scientific measurement. APPA President Alan Bigger was named to the CIA, according to a story in Cleaning & Maintenance Management Online.

The CIA group will explore and measure cleaning processes based on science, productivity, health protection and enhancement, and other factors germane to the professional care of indoor environments. KaiScience™ is an online community whose mission is to foster cleaner, healthier indoor environments through science. KaiScience members include scientists, medical doctors, public health and cleaning industry professionals, academics, and others interested in joining in enlightened discourse about the practical application of cleaning science and hygienic cleaning to health.

Iowa State Facilities Recognized by State

The Executive Council of the Iowa Recognition for performance Excellence (IRPE), Governor Chet Culver, and the Iowa Quality Center have granted Iowa State University’s Facilities Planning & Management division the silver award. This is the third straight year the division has received this honor.

The prestigious Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence awards were established eight years ago to recognize those businesses and organizations in the state who have completed a strenuous review and evaluation of their organizational performance management approaches and demonstrates improvement in delivery of value to their customers, organizational effectiveness and learning, and engagement of their workforce.  The process is aligned with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and the Criteria for Performance Excellence are used for the assessment.

"Sustaining our Buildings--The Next 100 years"  Hosted by The University of Alberta Buildings & Grounds Services.

This conference will be held on June 1-3 2008. The conference will focus on the provisions of cleaning and ground services at post secondary institutions across North America.

The conference theme is " Sustaining our Buildings--The Next 100 years" with keynote speaker Mr. Walter Bond, named recently by Minnesota Meetings & Events magazine (Winter 2006 Issue) "Speaker of the Year."  Walter's motivational programs teach the fundamentals of success in the NBA and corporate America.

Today the University of Alberta has a student, faculty and staff population of over 49,000 people and an international reputation in fields such as diabetes and viral research, plant biotechnology, chemistry, nanotechnology and English literature.  More than 90 buildings are spread around their beautiful 88-hectare campus.

This conference will provide the opportunity for participants to share their ideas, experiences, and success (even failures). Half of each session will be devoted to discussions related to the panel presentation.

Register and get Additional Information 

NCCI Leveraging Excellence Award Winners Selected

Innovative projects from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) and Brigham Young University won the 2008 Leveraging Excellence Award of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education (NCCI).

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago, won for its strategic collaboration, which saved the institutions millions while also streamlining processes. Brigham Young University won for its Capital Needs Analysis project, a program for managing capital assets in an integrated way. Originating at the Provo, Utah campus, this project started as an innovative approach to managing capital assets, resulting in significant savings.

Winners will be recognized at the NCCI co-sponsored Pre-conference at the Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education on February 10, 2008 in San Diego.  In addition, winners will be invited to present their accomplishments as featured speakers at NCCI's Annual Conference, which will be held in Chicago in July 2008.

Click here for more information on winners and honorable members.