May 30, 2018
Operations update from university administration
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
Our university employees are resilient, as President Myers stated in his letter to campus last week. Because of the hard work of many K-Staters and others, recovery has started and we want to provide an update to our university community.
Library personnel and services: Since the devastating fire closed Hale Library last week, university and library leadership teams have met in space provided by the K-State Alumni Association. Tuesday morning, all library employees met to receive an update and key leadership is coordinating with Space Management to begin determining work and space assignments. As decisions are made, the campus community will be notified where library staff and appropriate services will be relocated.
Hale restoration: The university contracted with Belfor Property Restoration, a global restoration company. Belfor will clean and restore the contents and structure of Hale Library including the data center and computer and IT equipment. Their crews have removed up to 95 percent of the water and are removing damaged carpets and ceiling tiles from the building. They have deployed portable chillers and dehumidifiers into the building to reduce the humidity.
Belfor staff are working alongside key library staff to assess the books as they remove them from the library. It is still early but there appears to be minimal damage to the special collections and rare books. Belfor has worked to cool that portion of the building. As time progresses we will continue to provide updates on the books and contents of the library.
Technology and payroll: University employees within Information Technology Services, or ITS, and Telecommunications have been working around the clock since the fire to restore email, web and telephone service. It was critical for payroll to be completed, so last week ITS hired a vendor to host the HRIS system. Employees from ITS and Human Capital Services worked diligently throughout the weekend and on Memorial Day to complete the payroll process for the pay period ending May 19. The files were successfully submitted to the state Monday evening so June 1 paychecks will be issued on time to university employees.
Over the weekend, Belfor worked to remove the water and deploy chillers and dehumidifiers to improve the climate in the data center. In addition they cleaned and checked the equipment. We learned on Tuesday that the core servers supporting the administrative systems — KSIS, HRIS and FIS — are in good condition. ITS will soon use temporary power to begin assessing these systems. Once complete, we will develop a plan to bring the top priority systems online. We will keep you informed of the progress.
Insurance: We are also working with a team of adjustors from our insurance provider to ensure we are providing and tracking the appropriate information.
We deeply appreciate the dedication and service of the employees who sacrificed their time last week and over the holiday weekend to restore services to the university. We know there is much more to do to become fully operational. Additional information and updates are provided on the update webpage and IT Services blog. Please contact us at 785-532-6226 if you have questions or concerns.
April Mason, provost and senior vice president
Cindy Bontrager, vice president for administration and finance