Monday may be the first day of school, but UAA has been getting ready for you long before that

When you settle into your first classes Monday morning, you‘ll be thinking about the course you’re taking and all the work ahead of you. You won’t be thinking about the chair or the lights or the desk.

But someone did.

Over the past two weeks, two workers from UAA maintenance chief Chris Mizelle’s crew went through classrooms and got them ready. That meant wiping surfaces down and replacing white board erasers and markers and making sure garbage was gone. With literally hundreds of classrooms, that took two workers about two weeks!

For the past four days, other maintenance crews have been mowing, hosing and sweeping, just to get everything right for the new year.

Eight classrooms got all new furniture over the summer.  If your seat Monday is particularly shiny, maybe you’re in one. The lucky spots were  the Social Sciences Building, University Center, Rasmuson Hall, the Administration/Humanities Building and Sally Monserud Hall.

So, what are the big maintenance challenges for UAA this year, Chris?

“Weather,” he says.  That, and a big facility-wide audit of all deferred maintenance.

Mizelle has worked at UAA 28 years. Sometimes, he says, he thinks he knows the insides of the university better than he knows his own house.

Thanks for spiffing everything up for the new year!