After a 13-year tenure that has seen phenomenal growth in the campus physical plant, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management Dave Gojdics has announced that he will retire as of Jan. 1.
Reflecting on his time at Emory, Gojdics said that the growth the University has experienced over the past decade is equivalent to "a career's worth of growth for most people. Our building square footage has increased by about 75 percent since I first came. Keeping up with that growth has been an accomplishment in itself. I think we've also done a good job of raising the general condition of campus facilities. When I was hired 13 years ago, the infrastructure of the campus was in a deteriorated state. We've replaced the steam plant and many steam lines, as well as the electrical distribution system. We also initiated a new approach to air conditioning campus buildings by constructing a central chiller plant that provides chilled water to air condition many buildings."
Gojdics and his staff have also implemented energy efficiency measure that have saved the University millions of dollars in energy costs over several years. The level of customer satisfaction also has risen during Gojdics tenure, according to customer satisfaction surveys conducted routinely by Facilities Management.
To accommodate Emory's growth, the size of the Facilities Management staff has grown under Gojdics' leadership, from about 275 in 1983 to 385 today.
When Gojdics came to Emory, his title was director of Physical Plant. In 1989, the division was renamed Facilities Management and Gojdics' title was changed to assistant vice president. He previously was director of Operations and Maintenance at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and also worked in plant management in the electronic, printing and lighting industries.
"It has been a pleasure to work with Dave for the past 13 years, and we all appreciate his accomplishments," said Vice President for Business Bobby Williams. "Also, we wish him continued happiness and success in his retirement years. Dave will continue to have full responsibililty for the Facilities Management Division until his replacement is named, hopefully later this fall."
The search for Gojdics' replacement has already begun, according to Beverly Cormican, director of University Projects. Cormican said an eight-member advisory committee has been appointed to identify a replacement for Gojdics. Williams is chairing the committee.
Cormican said that an executive search firm is assisting with the search and will forward the names of the top 20 candidates to the advisory committee this month. The committee hopes to identify a final candidate by December.
--Dan Treadaway