Plant Ops: Behind the Scenes

The Plant Operations department—Plant Ops for short—has a huge impact on the campus, from keeping up the grounds, collecting trash, cleaning buildings, and responding to work orders. Take a look at a map of the campus, and someone in Plant Ops is in charge of everything you see.

The department consists of about 100 people in three categories: grounds, housekeeping, and trades. The grounds crew makes sure all areas outdoors are clean, from the walkways to the athletic fields. Housekeeping is in charge of cleaning all of the buildings on campus including the academic buildings and the residence halls. Trades consists of the carpentry shop, paint shop, plumbing, and electrics. On top of their regular day-to-day duties, Plant Ops employees are also in charge of responding to the over 10,000 work orders that are submitted every year.

“We’re involved in just about every aspect of the life of everyone who lives on campus,” says Jim Bolton, Director of Plant Operations.

Jim Bolton has been involved in facilities since 1990. He had been working at Philadelphia University for nineteen years when he saw an advertisement in the newspaper advertising the same position at Muhlenberg. Bolton said he really didn’t care about getting the job, but figured he’d go for it anyway. As soon as he stepped on the campus, “there was just something about it, I just knew it.” This past June he was promoted to Director.

Just as many Muhlenberg students get that feeling of community as soon as they step on campus, so do many of the school’s employees. Even though Brian Conrad is one of the newest Plant Ops employees, he feels that connection too. A member of the grounds department, Conrad started working at the College in May. Every day is different for him depending on what’s needed the most. Right now, a big job for the grounds crew is leaf removal.

“Our job is just making sure the campus look nice, mowing, trimming the bushes, weeds,” said Conrad.

Conrad says he wants the Muhlenberg community to know that “we work hard every day to make sure the campus looks nice for them.” And even though he is still new to campus, he already feels the sense of community. “It’s a good place to work.”

Karen Krasley, a housekeeper in Walz, works hard to make sure the building looks nice for first-year students. She is in charge of cleaning “everything but the students’ rooms.” In other words, housekeepers clean all of the stairwells, hallways, lounges, kitchens, and laundry rooms in the residence halls. She likes her job because the schedule allows her to spend time with her three daughters who are in high school.

Krasley tries to make a point to interact with the students as much as she can. She remembers saying hello every morning to one resident who oftentimes wouldn’t even respond to her. But she kept saying hello, and at the end of the year she received a letter from the girl thanking her for greeting her every day.

“Sometimes you run into students who aren’t very giving in the sense of themselves. I try to brush that off as much as possible. Hopefully I can have a positive impact on somebody,” said Krasley.

Krasley is also very passionate about giving back to the community. She started a winter coat drive to give kids in Allentown warm clothes. At the end of the academic year, she plans to organize an event where students can donate their old clothes or school supplies to be distributed to kids in need.

In her spare time, Krasley likes spending time outdoors, no matter what season it is. She enjoys, hiking, mountain biking, and simply “being 100% off the grid.”

Her main goal: forget about the negative and choose the positive as much as possible. “As individuals we have a choice,” she says. “And that choice is up to us whether we want to have that filthy hallway be a negativity on us or if we’re going to just pick it up and move on with our lives. We have to find the push and the drive.”

As Muhlenberg’s locksmith, Gary Lieberman has less interaction with the student body than a housekeeper like Krasley. Still, he plays a very important role on this campus that many people take for granted.

Lieberman started working on the campus in 2008 as a carpenter. When the locksmith at the time was getting ready to retire, he began shadowing him. The College sent him to a training program in Massachusetts for a week so he would be able to assume the role, and in 2010 he became the new locksmith.

“I handle every single lock on campus,” says Lieberman. “Desk locks, file cabinet locks, anything with a lock.” It’s an important job because the campus has “a unique key system” so that the keys can’t be copied at any hardware store.

He says he doesn’t have too much interaction with students at Muhlenberg, except for his notable encounter with one student who asked him to just glue his broken key back together instead of replacing the lock.

While he doesn’t have much of a relationship with students, Lieberman still feels the community aspect of Muhlenberg’s campus.

“It’s a great place to work. They treat you well at Muhlenberg. The students are great,” said Lieberman.

And even though Brett Fulton, Assistant Director of Plant Ops, was used to working on a college campus, his experience at Muhlenberg has been very different. Fulton was working at Kutztown University two years ago when he saw an advertisement in the newspaper for the position of Manager of Grounds. He also took a liking to the campus as soon as he came.

“The architecture was great, the people were great,” said Fulton.

In May he was promoted to Assistant Director of Plant Ops. But from the beginning he says he always felt a real sense of community on campus.

“There was a very warm sense, even throughout the interview process. Just a lot more team-oriented than I was used to at a state school,” said Fulton.

And that’s a sentiment the entire staff feels. The campus is a community, a family. Bolton says many of the employees at Plant Ops are parents, so they treat the students the way they would want their children to be treated. Additionally, he noted everyone on the team is working to make Muhlenberg the best it can be.

“The staff loves this campus just as much as the students do,” said Fulton. “They’re always willing to go the extra mile.”

All photos courtesy of Chloe Gravereaux