There is a lot of hard work and effort that goes into making a college campus run as efficiently as possible. Most of the credit goes to the teachers, and some to the facilities staff. But who is the individual that works behind the scenes to help keep the campus clean, and makes sure that everything is kept running perfectly? Who is the one who listens to our complaints and goes above and beyond to fix what is broken? The genius behind all of this is the University of King’s Facilities Director, Ian Wagshal.
Wagshal has been working at the University of King’s for only four months, but he’s no rookie. He has previously worked at Dalhousie as their Facilities Director. The question we might have is: what does a Facilities Director do exactly? “Part of the job of being a director is that I oversee all of the facilities here at King’s and to make sure everything is maintained,” said Wagschal, “Also, to make major plans for what might happen here in the future. I’m supposed to overlook all of those activates.”
Wagschal continued by saying, “it also includes a lot of everyday things like security, maintenance of the building, grounds keeping, following some repair going on. You know if someone’s heating isn’t working, then we have to go over and turn the heat on or fix the thermostat. So, it’s a mixture of high-level planning with the big picture and taking care of all the day-to-day activities to keep the buildings running.” Needless to say, being the Facilities Director is a very important job with a lot of responsibilities.’
“You know not many twelve-year-old kids wake up and say I’m going to be a Facilities Manager.” Wagschal jokingly said at first. “It started for me with architecture. I wanted to be an architect. Then I discovered when I was doing work with architecture firms, I was actually really good with project management. So basically, making sure things were on time and on budget and also bringing together a team of people that can properly work together. Which is harder than it sounds. So instead of designing buildings, I stayed in project management, where you take other people’s designs and help them”.
At this point in his career, he got recognized by Dalhousie. Dalhousie hired him and from there, Wagschal has been working in Facilities Management. Over time he has learned the rest of what the responsibilities were for Facilities Management at Dalhousie. When the opportunity came up to work at King’s, he applied and was hired on the spot.
Wagschal is eager to continue working here at King’s, “I see the opportunity here at King’s to make something special. You have the FYP and journalism. These are important undergraduate programs that can’t be replicated anywhere else. I’m hoping from going to Dal where it’s big, to King’s where it is much smaller, I’ll get to have a lot more input and also be able to be a part of that community in a deeper way.”
“This is a great opportunity; this is what I’m interested in and this is what I’m working here for. I still haven’t entirely worked it out, but there is definitely a sense of community here that is strong. I have only been here for four months and it is something I definitely want to be a part
of.” Although most of the students don’t recognize him yet, Ian is very hopeful that he can try to become closer to the King’s community. He is always open to listen to what the students really have to say about how they can contribute to improving King’s and to make sure everyone has the best experience.
With a person like Ian Wagschel around to help keep things running, Kings has a bright future ahead of itself.