As students and faculty go about life at West Texas A&M, they see some form of maintenance going on or some form of construction happening. They look about and may see a janitor about to mop a floor, or an electrician working to fix a light fixture that has been going in and. What some students and faculty don’t realize is that almost all of those services are outsourced to different companies that hire employees to do these jobs. The janitorial and maintenance services, different kinds of construction and even the food services are all provided by companies outside of WT.
“I know most of our construction is done by outside contractors,” Blake Gieseking, Psychology graduate student and Hall Coordinator of Jarrett Hall, said. “Most of our janitorial services are done through companies like SSC while food service is with Aramark.”
Students sometimes wonder how the university goes about obtaining these services, asking themselves if the university gets them through a bidding process or if they sign a contract with whoever can offer the university the best deal. It also begs the question of whether or not the entire process is about finding the lowest price or is it about giving the best service to the students that a university could offer.
“When we look at the services, we look at what would provide the best in the matter of student service, even if that is not the most cost effective,” Cindy Spencer, Senior Director of Residential Living, said.
According to Spencer, services like our janitorial ones are through SSC, which is used system-wide throughout all Texas A&M campuses. SSC also handles small construction projects, such as some small, miniscule renovations and things like the Vaughan Pedestrian Mall by Old Main. SSC also handles things like electrical work and other forms of maintenance for the campus.
The process for getting these services, such as SSC, Mack Grey, and Aramark, is done through a pretty typical process among universities. According to Bryan Glenn, Director of Purchasing for the University, the university first sends out an RFI (Request for Information) to obtain information about different vendors and get a broad spectrum of the services different vendors supply. The purchasing office then submits a RFP (Request for Proposal) to the university’s website and then to the state. They then have a pre meeting, weigh what is best for the university and then wait for responses and take the best possible option.
“We actually obtained services from Aramark and Pepsi through the RFP process,” Glenn said. “With Pepsi, it came down to them and Coke, and Pepsi gave us the better and more practical option for the school.”
For larger construction projects, things like the renovation of the JBK and the construction of the FAC, the school goes through a bidding process.
“We usually put large projects through a bidding process to different contractors, sometimes through ones provided by SSC,” Glenn said. “Sometimes we even have some pre-negotiated contracts with certain contractors that we can choose from.”
Glenn also mentioned a new system-wide program called “BAM by A&M.” In this program, the schools in the system would basically share contractors, making a more unitary and simple system for different contracting projects. Instead of each school having to find different contractors, BAM would make it simpler by giving a list of contractors through the system of all the different campuses.
“We’re actually going to be rolling BAM out in December, so we’re really excited about that.” said Glenn.