Dear Brooklyn College Community,

I hope everyone is having a great start to the fall 2018 semester. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Alan Gilbert, and I am the senior vice president for finance and administration.

We have been very busy over the last few months, and I want to highlight some accomplishments.

  • Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts: The Tow Center opened at the start of the fall 2018 semester. Visible from the Hillel Gate entrance, the center truly makes a magnificent new addition to our campus. This facility offers our performing arts programs an outstanding set of venues, including a state-of-the-art academic theater, performance spaces, and rehearsal rooms. Work on the building will continue during the fall term, and we invite you to visit it during the semester.
  • 90-Day Facilities Challenge: During the spring 2018 semester, we surveyed all 236 bathrooms on campus. The Facilities Success Team assessed 1,634 fixtures as well as the general conditions of each bathroom. We found 529 issues with fixtures and 228 issues with general conditions. By the end of the 90-Day Challenge, all bathroom issues were resolved. That’s a 100% success rate! We encourage you to review our detailed Executive Summary on the 90-Day Challenge. I would like to thank the Brooklyn College Foundation; without their generous support, this would not have been possible.
  • BC Fix-it: The ITS team has completed the “BC Fix-it” initial rollout, and we are in Phase 2 testing with our custodial, plumbing, and carpentry teams. We are hoping to roll this out to the campus community during the academic year. For those of you who are new to our campus, each bathroom fixture has been tagged with a four-digit number. Until BC Fix-it goes live on BC Navigator, you are encouraged to e-mail the tag ID # of a broken fixture with an explanation of the issue.
  • West End Building Computer Lab Restrooms: The women’s and men’s restrooms have been remodeled. Our team completed the ongoing work this summer by removing existing walls to firmly secure new fixtures, retiling, and painting.
  • Bell Tower: Last spring, we repaired the clock on our bell tower. This fall, we will begin the project to repair and refurbish the tower itself.
  • New Water Bottle Hydration Stations: Five new stations were installed across campus. These stations were funded by students through the participatory budgeting process. There is still work to be done. We will be scheduling Town Hall meetings this fall to discuss the results of our spring 2018 survey and other related topics.

Respectfully yours,

Alan Gilbert
Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration