Page 8 - College Planning & Management, February 2018

Campus Scene IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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OmniFlex AutoVac and a case of Kai- vac’s Neutral Floor Cleaner.
For more information, a link to
the Healthy School Handbook, and to download an entry form, visit https:// spaces4learning.com/pages/hfa/healthy- facilities-awards.aspx.
NFMT Conference
Coming Soon
National Facilities Management & Technology-Baltimore (NFMT) is the premier educational conference and trade show in the facilities management industry. Held at the Baltimore Convention Center (March 20-22, 2018), it’s the largest show for facilities professionals in the country.
Currently in its eighteenth year, this year NFMT is proud to partner with the Smart Building Innovations Confer- ence—an event focused on managing intelligent, efficienct, occupant-friendly facilities. The 125+ scheduled confer- ence sessions continue to be a vital part of the show. Conference sessions do not overlap with show floor hours, ensuring attendees’ time is maximized through- out all three days of NFMT.
NFMT is free to attend. Your reg- istration includes access to more than 125 educational sessions, entry to the industry’s largest FM Expo, facility tours, and networking events. For more information or to register, visit www. nfmt.com/baltimore.
URI Campus Listed
on National Register
of Historic Places
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service has recognized the core of the University of Rhode Island’s main campus in Kingston as a historic district, adding it to the National Regis- ter of Historic Places.
This federal distinction recognizes the University of Rhode Island Historic District for its contributions to the history of education, architecture, and landscape
architecture, Jeffrey Emidy, acting execu- tive director of the Rhode Island Histori- cal Preservation & Heritage Commission, said in announcing the designation.
The URI Historic District includes approximately 29 acres on or around the grassy, tree-lined quadrangle of the Kings- ton campus. The oldest structure in the district is the Oliver Watson Farmhouse (ca. 1796), part of the farmland purchased in 1888 to establish the agricultural school that would one day become URI.
Most of the buildings in the district, particularly those that were built for academic use, are a few stories tall and are constructed of quarry-faced granite ashlar, resulting in a unified campus char- acter. Some of that stone was harvested from now-defunct quarries on campus.
Lyon College
Will Open Pet-Friendly
Residence Hall
In the upcoming 2018-19 school year, Lyon College in Batesville, AR, will in- troduce pet-friendly housing to its cam- pus. Through this new initiative, Lyon joins just a small handful of colleges in the country that allow cats and dogs in on-campus housing. Recently, several changes have been made to the college’s programming to create a more inclusive, holistic approach to campus life. Accord- ing to President W. Joseph King, “We will be the only pet-friendly college from Texas to Virginia. It is exciting to move Lyon in a more pet-friendly direction.”
One of Lyon’s residence halls will be designated as pet-friendly, opening up spots for 20 students to bring their four-legged companions to live with them at school. The college will consider opening up more residence halls to pets as demand grows.
The college will welcome pets to areas all over campus. A new coffee shop and study area, The Salty Dog, will have treats for both pets and students. A fenced-in dog park is being added on campus to give dogsleash-freetimeoutside. CPM
Hot Tips
This Month
Purchasing
Strategic Procurement
THE BENEFITS OF A STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT
operation can be significant and far-reaching. Here are some tips to consider when attempt- ing to become more strategic.
Align the goals of your strategic sourcing and procurement function with the institution goals. This is one of the most important things to consider.
Ensure you have a solid Spend Analyt- ics program in place. Understanding, analyzing, and managing your institutional spend is a key component to success.
Develop a strategic sourcing plan. Use your spend data to develop a strategic sourc- ing plan that determines where you’re going to get the biggest ROI.
Establish the right competitive solicitation thresholds. If these thresholds, contract terms, and limits are too low, it restricts the ability of a procurement function to be truly strategic.
Make sure you have an effective e- procurement system or solution. This can significantly improve process efficiencies.
Leverage cooperative contracts and other group purchasing opportunities. Cooperative and/or group purchasing contracts provide significant time savings and financial incentives.
Continue to utilize emerging tools, such as reverse auctions. Reverse auctions bring transparency, savings, and speed to
the bidding process, while ensuring that you receive the best value available.
Review and manage your payment services and processes. An e-payables solu- tion is critical to the success of any procure-to- pay organization process.
Monitor your contract utilization and compliance. You may have great contracts in place, but if there is too much maverick spend and people are not using those contracts, or if your suppliers are not complying with those contracts, then you’re leaving money on the table.
Gary D. Link, C.P.M., is senior vice president of E&I Consulting Group & Contracts. He can be reached at glink@eandi.org.
8 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / FEBRUARY 2018
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