By SUSAN JONES
If there’s one thing that the incoming and outgoing leaders of Pitt’s Office of Facilities Management agree on, it’s that “people don’t realize what happens out there. They notice things that are wrong, but they don’t notice all the things that happened to make this place great. They would notice if we stopped.”
The comments of Laura Zullo, who took over as vice chancellor of facilities management on Sept. 15, were echoed by her predecessor Scott Bernotas.
“If you just come to facilities, spend a day there, you will see 600-plus people pushing really, really hard,” he said. “It’s a great team. And I know it sounds cliche, … but I feel it in my heart.”
Bernotas, who will be working as a special assistant to the chancellor until he retires at the end of the calendar year, listed all the tasks the office handles including cleaning, maintaining and repairing buildings, maintaining campus grounds, fixing equipment, running utility plants for heating, chilled water and electricity, and removing snow.
He noted that when you come to campus in the winter, it may be really hard to get here, but once you’re on campus, everything is cleared. “That’s because they’re here at four o’clock in the morning, when nobody else is even awake and it’s dark and it’s sleeting and it’s cold, and they get it done.”
The work crews are supported by engineers, accountants, human resource specialists and procurement and contracts specialists. Bernotas said what he’d like the Pitt community to know about facilities management is that, “It just doesn’t stop. It’s every day, every day, every day.”
10-year tenure
Bernotas came to Pitt in 2015 from a similar job at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and after retiring from a 30-year career in the Navy.
He’s faced several challenges during his tenure here, including integrating all the housing and dining facilities into facilities management and increasing the number of buildings the office is responsible for from 80 to around 140.
They used that as “an opportunity to standardize our processes and procedures, our standards and expectations across all of our buildings,” he said. “The team has really risen to that. It’s a great crew. That’s the part that made (retiring) hard. It’s like coming to work with people you really, really think have the University’s best interest at heart, and it’s infectious.”
The systems that control the buildings also keep getting more complex, he said. “We have some new tools in the last few years that we’ve got to help automate our processes to try to keep pace with the changes in the systems.”
Bernotas cited several other big changes and accomplishments in facilities during the past 10 years, including:
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Senior leadership and the Board of Trustees deciding to invest in the preservation of Pitt’s older buildings. “That has made a difference across the campus,” he said, “But, again, it’s upped our pace, because now there’s more work that we have to do in the buildings to keep them young, to extend their life.”
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Taking the energy management operation center from being staffed only during the day with a few people to now operating all day, every day. “I appreciate leadership for letting me make that change back in 2018. … Now, 24/7, 365, we have somebody that’s looking at over a million sensors across campus feeding back into the energy management center. That’s just increased our oversight and our ability to be more responsive after hours.”
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Building the chilled water plant on upper campus, which serves as a central utilities building. This plant was needed to provide cooling to the new rec center and the arena that’s still under construction, and to provide redundancies to existing systems. It also holds the seventh electrical substation on campus, again increasing capacity and redundancy. The building captures stormwater, which allows Pitt to purchase less clean, domestic water from utilities and prevents more stormwater from coming down the hill.
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Implementing an electronic, computerized maintenance management system. Prior to 2017, all the work orders were done with pen and copy paper. When housing was merged with facilities, their system was integrated into the facilities system, which was completed last year. “That allows us to track over 92,000 work orders that come in every year,” Bernotas said. “I have no idea how they were able to do it with pen and paper.”
Bernotas said he decided to retire so he could have some time with his daughter, who is a sophomore in high school, before she leaves the nest. “It’s been fun, but I look forward to being able to slow down a little bit and spend time with my daughter. But I’m not sure how I’m going to adjust every day to that pace.”
Looking forward
Zullo is no stranger to facilities management. She worked in Pitt facilities for 29 years before moving over to the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Operations. She most recently was executive director of administration in what is now the Office of Finance and Operations.
“I think the day after I graduated from Pitt engineering, almost, I went down the elevator to work in facilities, which was in Benedum Hall,” she said. “So didn’t even leave the building.”
She has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial engineering, both from Pitt. She said much of her early work at facilities was in heating and air conditioning projects, and she eventually held eight or 10 different positions.
“My first official project, I think, was a steam line replacement over to Clapp Hall. This really is feeling like going home to me, because I truly grew up there. I was 21 when I started.”
Zullo said working with senior leadership has given her a broader view of how campus works. She’s also been involved in providing information to the Board of Trustees and Pitt’s senior leadership to help them decide on capital projects and real estate transactions, and on prioritizing capital investments.
Now she’s ready to get to know facilities again. “I really want to concentrate on meeting the team, learning how things are done now. I know there’s been a lot of changes and advances down there, so I’m excited to hear more about that.”
She also wants to get out and see the new construction on campus, like the Recreation and Wellness Center, and visit the different areas where the facilities staff work, like the trades shops.
While she plans to continue the focus on preservation — Pitt has 27 buildings that are over 100 years old — Zullo said “probably the biggest challenge, I think, we’re facing right now is fiscal.”
“Campus is growing and getting more complex, and we need to keep up with that,” she said. “We’ve had some conversations about working together across finance and operations to find creative opportunities to do things a little bit differently. I think we’re going to have to keep pursuing those, because we want to retain our high standards of service.”
Bernotas said the condition of the campus is improving every year, and the most recent assessment by an external agency in 2024 was able to track those improvements. He said this is a direct result of investment by the Board of Trustees and Pitt’s senior leadership. “But if you turn the spigot off, if you stop investing for even a little while … you’ll quickly see the dip.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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