Faculty and students on ETSU’s campus can help improve different parts of the campus through the Facilities Improvement Fund.
“Our window of opportunity to get this stuff done is usually over the summer,” Dan O’Brien, executive director of Facilities Services, said.
The Facilities Improvement Fund accepted proposals for campus improvement until Nov. 9. Many of the proposals in the past have helped fund improvements to the campus.
“Some examples are outside of Subway we put in a seating wall,” O’Brien said. “We also worked on Brooks Gym since student affairs is utilizing that with the Culp being down. Classroom upgrades has been another one.”
O’Brien said the Facilities Improvement Fund has been around since fall of 2017.
“There’s one [proposal] in the fall semester, one in the spring,” he said.
The most common kind of applicant is generally faculty and staff.
“There’s a few students here and there,” O’Brien said. “But a majority of what we see come from faculty and staff. I’d like to see more students submit proposals.”
Funding for the proposals would fall into four categories. According to the Facilities Improvement website, the four categories are improvement in campus beautification, number of students impacted, project alignment with campus master plan and improvements in campus infrastructure or Maintenance.
“Whichever ones have the most impact for the students, generally those are favored higher,” O’Brien said.
One of the things that the Facilities Fund looks for in application is if they meet one of the four categories.
“It can also be improvements in campus infrastructure or maintenance ,” he said. “So that doesn’t mean just facilities that could be an improvement in the internet for the campus, any sort of infrastructure.”
O’ Brien said that it takes three to four weeks for a proposals to be approved.
“The problem with most of our work is that school is year round,” he said. “So if it’s classrooms that’s gonna have to wait until summertime or some break when we don’t have classes.”
With the Facilities fund being designed for the students, he encourages students to submit a proposal.
“The fund is there for the students to make a better place for the students,” O’Brien said. “Whatever has the greatest student impact is what the advisory board is looking for.”
