ACUTA eNews December 2015 - Volume 44, Number 12 | Page 6
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Building Your Master Specifications
At Utah Valley University, we have seen tremendous growth in recent years. Enrollment for the
2015 fall semester crested the 33,000 mark,
increasing the number of students on campus
by 7% compared to last fall, and making UVU
the largest public institution of higher education in the state. To accommodate all that
growth, there have been a lot of extensive remodels and new buildings coming online. None
of that took place without incident, however.
Communication between UVU’s IT Infrastructure
and the project, architects, engineers, and contractors was imperfect, and a lot of the time we
Tom Branam is Director of Telephone Services at Utah
weren’t on the same page as far as what we
Valley University in Orem, Utah.
wanted and what needed to happen. The issue
became: Finding a way to communicate that
worked for all of us.
We started to look at other universities around the country to see if they were
experiencing similar problems. That’s how we came to find Summit Engineering & Consulting, based in Pasco, WA. After working with Central Washington
University, Washington State University, the U.S. General Services Administration, and the Washington State Department of Corrections, Summit was well
prepared to help us out. They came on campus and started working with us to
redesign our campus technology standards.
The first thing we had to do was get all the
information from the Telecommunications and
Media departments into a design guide. Next,
we met as a group and updated the entire
university infrastructure. We were in constant
communication with Summit, updating our
specs and accepting or modifying documents.
This process took about 6 months, but it was
time well spent. Now we have accurate design
guides and construction specifications for all
the work being done on campus. Moving forward, we’ll meet with them once a year to keep
up to date with new codes and specifications.
Whenever we start on a new remodel or building, we have detailed design guides for the
architects and engineers, and construction
specifications for the contractors to follow. This
process has made a world of difference in efficiently integrating the proper infrastructure for
all technology at UVU. From the perspective of
saving money and time, as well as gaining a
better understanding of our technology’s value
and life cycle, our university has taken a huge
step forward thanks to these new standards.
Reach Tom at [email protected].
Happy Holidays!
Wishing
you and yours the
blessings
of this
season,
good
health
in the
coming
year,
love,
laughter,
peaceful
and a
world.
From the
The ACUTA
Board & Sta ff