New campus improvements aim to enhance student experience
By Emma Knight | Sept. 15, 2026
Students returning to Maryville College for the fall semester may have noticed some changes around campus, from freshly painted residence halls to pet waste stations. And what is that wooden structure in front of Pearson’s? Over the summer, Facilities Operations, maintenance staff, alumni and the Student Government Association (SGA) worked on various projects intended to enhance campus life and create a better experience for students.
“About 60% of the dorm rooms on campus were repainted,” said Facilities Operations Manager Chris Kennedy. The department also deep-cleaned carpets, mainly in Carnegie, Lloyd and Gibson residence halls, and replaced carpeting in Beeson Village.
Dining facilities are receiving updates as well, with the recent addition of a new dish machine that requires less maintenance. Replacement ovens, refrigerators and a new grill are also currently in the works.
The grounds crew has also stayed busy over the summer maintaining the College’s grounds. High humidity and excess rainfall resulted in rapid vegetation growth, which required frequent mowing and landscaping to upkeep our campus grounds.
“We also signed a new mower lease agreement for the grounds crew, which will help them continue to keep the grounds looking beautiful while reducing their maintenance burden,” said Kennedy.
Some students may wonder what the wooden structure in front of Pearson’s is and its intended purpose. According to Chief of Staff Jordan McCullough, the structure serves as an ongoing experiment to track weathering characteristics for the exterior wooden siding of the new Alexander Institute.
The wood is thermally modified North American red oak, which is sustainably processed in Telford, Pennsylvania.
SGA contributed to campus improvements by purchasing pet waste stations scattered around campus, as well water bottle filling stations in a few residence halls.
“As of right now, that is all that has been implemented, and we are working to get some more upgrades added as well,” Student Body President Izzy Freeman (‘28) said.
Alumni also contributed to campus improvements during KT Week. Facilities Operations said the alumni were able to help complete critical projects that the department, due to limitations in time and personnel, had not been able to accomplish on its own.
Director of Alumni Affairs Jennifer Triplett said some of the projects included building two new picnic tables for the Fine Arts department’s outdoor space. Alumni also added pavers beneath the two solar picnic tables on Pearsons’s quad, which replaced old and warped surface boards on the fixed picnic table at Thaw, and made much-needed repairs to the Crawford back deck.
With many successful projects completed around campus, Facilities Operations continues to make bigger plans for the future as part of the College Strategic Focus.
Part of this goal consists of an “evergreen priority list” to ensure improvements are addressed across the campus in continual cycles instead of remaining reactionary, as well as a revised Facilities Operations service model that defines service standards, accountability measures and response protocols, according to Kennedy.
The department is also developing a master plan for all residential housing on campus, which will ensure better prioritization of improvements to residence halls.
Technology could also play a major role in upcoming facilities maintenance as well. The college is testing a new and improved computerized maintenance management system, or CMMS.
This system could improve communication, asset management and predictive maintenance analysis that can work with AI to identify issues proactively and potentially address them before they occur.
Students can expect continued changes around campus as the college and Facilities Operations work to “improve the student experience and campus facilities to advance a sense of belonging, pride, connectedness, and student success,” Kennedy said.
.