After students left, the facilities staff wasted no time tuning up the campus. They have been hard at work this summer improving, securing and updating parts of campus.

Work on and around campus started once students left for summer break in May and will continue until students return in late August.

One of the most noticeable features around campus for students will be the security cameras in the dorm buildings.

“We installed 18 cameras throughout the residence halls,” Rick Ewing, Vice President, Operations and Planning. “Those are typically in the entryways viewing the lobby and doorways just to bring that extra level of security.”

Cameras are also being set up in buildings, such as Patterson, that have computer labs as an extra safety precaution.

“When it comes to the building changes, probably some of the most dramatic will be the work we did in Myers Hall this year,” Ewing said.

To give Myers a fresh and updated look, the lobby was completely redone and the entire building received new carpet, a new paint job, new light fixtures and improved wifi. Inside of the dorm rooms, there will now be tile instead of carpeting.

The other building to receive a little bit of TLC was CFA, where the computer lab in 212 was given new computers and a new teachers board with a projector.

In the downstairs of CFA, the Journalism & Digital Media hallway had some remodeling done. Two of the rooms in the JDM area were combined to make a multimedia lab to accommodate the growing major.

The projects are now all in the midst of wrapping up, finishing with the campus sidewalks, but there have still been a few setbacks.

“We had a pretty severe rainstorm, it was hard and fast so within 20 minutes we received two inches of rain,” Ewing said. “When we receive that kind of rain in that short of time King Road overflows and had water coming up over the road and made its way in Kilhefner lobby. There was also some flooding in Bixler, lower convo and Clayton.”

Facilities had to put aside their other projects and were quick with clean-up to ensure there was not any further damage.

“Our staff was able to get in there with shop-vacs and carpet extractors and were able to get everything cleaned up where we needed to,” Ewing said. “We shampooed the carpet again. It’s not a regular occurrence but it is something we have experienced before.”

Clean-up took a few days before they were back on schedule.

“It takes a lot of hard work to get everything done in a short amount of time,” Ewing said. “But fortunately we are in good shape to start classes and ready for the students to return.”