ACUTA eNews December 2015 - Volume 44, Number 12 | Page 6

6 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