Freshman Stephen Woody empties trash bins in Jackson Hall while working for facilities.

One of Covenant College’s most integral departments, Facilities Services, has undergone various innovations, restructurings, and personnel changes. According to Joseph Dunkin, the new head of facilities services, these changes were formulated to “improve and codify current procedures, closer management of employee time and inventory control with an eye toward better customer service and stewardship of resources.”

First, Facilities management has undertaken the task of insuring better returns for their work-study students by attempting to coordinate with their schedules, eliminating the shortfalls that sometimes occur when differing hours create differing workforce capabilities and strengths.

Secondly, Facilities seeks to improve the efficiency of the workforce that is employed by keeping close tabs not only on what is being done by the workers, but the why and where of how time and effort is being spent, seeking to maximize the abilities of the forces deployed but the extent of the work done as well. This is done to eliminate overlapping and duplication of services and to insure that workers receive a good return for their service. This efficiency also allows for an oft-forgotten facilities management responsibility, namely, meeting 11th hour semi-emergencies that may go unnoticed by the student body or issues that require immediate attention–situations that an unorganized workforce could not address.

Another change in Facilities management has been the addition of Dunkin as Facilities Services Manager, hired in order to better coordinate documentation efforts and communication. Although Dunkin was only hired this year, Facilities Services has already seen a great benefit in this new addition to its staff. Corey Dupree, Facilities Management Supervisor, praised Dunkin, saying that, thanks to Joseph Dunkin: “I have seen greater communication within the department and out to our customers, as well as greater emphasis on documenting procedures with a view to improving customer service.”

This early success is due in part to Dunkin’s view of the purpose of Facilities Services, namely “to serve God’s people and to steward the resources to accomplish that task.”
“We love the students we work for. They are the reason we are here,” Dunkin said.

The facilities services workers were generally supportive of the changes in structure although they expressed some reservations about the way in which they are used. A student worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, summed it up like this: “Some of the jobs we are given feel like simply “busy work” while other times we are definitely using our time wisely.”

Additionally, some workers gave positive reviews to the hiring of Joseph Dunkin, using works such as ‘great’, ‘pleasant’ and ‘efficient’ to describe him and his work. Another unnamed worker described him as “a great person to work for. He is always very friendly and lets his workers know they are doing a good job.”

Covenant College is composing what is being called the Common Language Document, a document that will be used by all departments and offices to show Covenant’s mission and values.

“It’s really an effort to be more consistent in what all of us say about Covenant, that we’re all talking from the same script,” Jim Drexler, Chair of Education, said, when describing the Common Language Document. The document is a part of the Connections and Communications trajectory in the Strategic Plan.

Adopted in the spring of 2009, the Strategic Plan is intended to advance the founding mission of the College, which is to demonstrate the preeminence of Christ in all things and to “offer the world biblically grounded men and women equipped to live out extraordinary callings in ordinary places.”

The Connections and Communications trajectory of the Plan, one of four parts, is an effort to create partnerships and clearly express what Covenant stands for. One important step in this trajectory is creating the Common Language Document, which will be used to communicate Covenant’s mission specifically to supporters and prospective students.

A committee of six faculty members from various departments is in charge of creating the document. Some of the committee members are Drexler, Assistant Professor of English Sarah Huffines, and President Nielson. Other members involved are Sarah Ocando from Admissions, Jenni DeJong from Advancement, and Jen Allen from Communications.

“We have met now 3 or 4 times during this academic year,” said Drexler. Together, the committee sifted through all the internal documents that Covenant has produced, such as previous purpose and doctrinal statements. From these documents, they extracted the common themes and phrases that have been used throughout Covenant’s history to describe what the college stands for.

The committee then took phrases and words that were most often used to express these themes and compiled a glossary of the terms and language.

“Once our committee completes its work, those phrases and words will be passed on to a variety of internal audiences for their feedback and input,” Drexler said.

The document will probably change a lot during this process of feedback. Many of the current words or phrases could be altered or completely removed. The committee hopes to have the document ready by this spring.

When it is finished, it will be distributed to the various departments that present Covenant and its values to donors and potential students. It will be used by recruiters, Advancement, Admissions, and Communications to ensure that all departments are representing the College in the same way and with similar language.

Business club members pose with Donny Nelson Jr., the General Manager of the NBA Dallas Mavericks Basketball Team.

“You can’t do anything you want to do, but only what God has planned for you to do” recalled senior Ryan Yackel as he reflected on his recent trip with the Business Club.

On February 17 several Business Club members, led by Tim Mahla from Advancement, set out on an educational trip to Dallas Texas. According to Mahla, “The purpose of the trip was to give our students an opportunity to see the principles we teach at Covenant applied by Christian Business professionals in the Dallas area.” While there, they were generously housed at Nelson and Mary Somerville’s home.  Nelson (a 1978 alumnus) and his wife Mary are parents of a current Covenant student.

Business Club members met with a wide spectrum of Christian business leaders, ranging from the owners of a family operated, local furniture store (Weir’s Furniture) to Donny Nelson Jr., the General Manager of the NBA Dallas Mavericks Basketball Team. The group’s first visit was with President of Annandale Capital (an investment advisory firm) Tom Shirley, and Principal and Chief Compliance Officer Craig Wenning. Despite dealing with portfolios of a minimum of $5 million, these men were quick to point out the absolute importance of integrating their faith into their business practice without falling into the common extremes of either retreating into an unhealthy “closet-Christianity” or the other extreme of subscribing to a weak, unrespectable, namby-pamby “Ned Flanders” Christianity. Just listening to Tom and Craig’s biblical guidance and encouragement was exciting for the group. Senior Catie Ramage recounts that Mr. Wenning was “just shooting out Scripture left and right and it was so wonderful to hear.”

Business Club members also visited Frito-Lay’s headquarters, and met Larry Perry, director of Environmental Compliance. Additionally, they met with business alumni in the area: David Garrett of Trion LCC (management consulting) and Parker Benda, entrepreneur and co-owner of the famous Fuel City gas station. Moreover, hedge fund expert, Jeff Lafayette, explained to them how having a liberal arts background equips a person to actually be able to discern and understand information, instead of simply inputting data and not seeing the big picture. The diversity and quality of companies that were visited was largely thanks to the combined connections of Mahla, and Business Club members junior Stephen Johnson, and senior Jonathan Pelts.

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