John Hermes on campus upgrades and stewardship

3 minute read

As Oklahoma Christian University enters year 75, areas of campus are improving. The upgrades kicked off last semester with the renovation of the president’s home. Returning students can see upgrades to classrooms, laundry, apartments and the mail center.

John Hermes, chief information and campus operations officer, discussed some of the upgrades. 

“We redid all the stairs and painted the stairs on Phase 6 over the summer. This was just something we identified as a problem which needed to be addressed. The Allen Center and the laundry rooms were just in disrepair and needed to be addressed,” Hermes said.

While some needed improvements fall under the campus operation budget, other upgrades are funded by donors including additions to the communication department, a remodel of the admissions building, new lights in Adams recital hall and new floors in the Bible department office area.

“When you think of projects, like when we did some renovations on the phase three laundry rooms this summer around the Allen Center, those projects were funded by university operating dollars, just our normal budget,” Hermes said. “But if you look at Johnson Terrace or the Memorial Tree Plaza, as well as the mail room, all of those are donor funded.” 

The operations budget covers more urgent needs on campus while donors often specify dollars to enrichment projects. 

“Johnson Terrace is one of those things. (The donors) wanted to create an outdoor space for students. While it may not have been a top priority on our list, it was a great addition for our campus and a great feature to the Memorial Tree Plaza,” Hermes said. “We’ve had those trees forever. We’re actually dedicating them this Friday. Those trees have been on campus for several years, but this was something where donors got together and wanted to make it a nicer space and to pay tribute to the space.” 

Hermes said more upgrades are on the way. 

“We have things happening all the time. We have a list of campus improvements which we keep and maintain. I don’t know when they’ll come up, but there are always things in the works. Some of those will be donor funded, especially classroom space renovations,” Hermes said. 

Hermes talked about stewardship as it applies to the campus of Oklahoma Christian.

“I believe it is important to remember, with a campus like ours, when student tuition dollars help to fund not just teachers in the classroom, but the infrastructure it takes to maintain a college. We need to keep the campus looking beautiful,” Hermes said. “We need to ensure we are being good stewards of what we’ve been blessed with, and we have been blessed with a great campus. This should be our end goal, being good stewards of the things which we’ve been blessed with.”