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Kansas City Community College Utilizes Strong Partnerships to Manage Upkeep of 110,000 Sq. Ft. Student Housing Building
Kansas City Community College is the third largest community college by enrollment in Kansas. This centrally located public two-year institution is committed to making sure students have a successful and enjoyable college experience. With an average enrollment of 9,000 students per year, the college is devoted to providing an education that fully prepares students to enter the workforce.
The campus consists of about 2.2 million square feet of space today and the Director of Facility Services, Chris Gardner, shared with us that they are actively programming for another building downtown. His role focuses on managing all of the college’s facilities including all things electrical, plumbing and HVAC. On top of this, his team does building remodels, refreshes and repairs when needed.
The Challenge: Student Housing Turnover
2022 was the first year that students lived on campus in the new student housing building, Centennial Hall. The housing director had students provide their own shower curtains, but Gardner and his team quickly found this was causing problems. When they hung the curtain rods, they were placed at a higher level than the standard curtain length, so students were having issues with flooding and excess water. He and his team spent countless hours cleaning up these messes, so they decided to work with Global Industrial to purchase shower curtains that are the proper length. This order was placed so that he and his team could install during student turns after the 2023 school year.
Through their participation with OMNIA Partners, Kansas City Community College is able to leverage industry-leading supplier partnerships to meet their unique needs more effectively and efficiently than if they were sourcing suppliers on their own.
He and his team are also working with Global Industrial to complete other tasks of student turns. In order to quickly repair and replace damaged aspects of the dorm in a timely manner, Kansas City Community College needs quick access to solutions, and that is what they have received from this partnership. Gardner’s Account Manager at Global Industrial, Cynthia Sexton, has worked tirelessly with him to ensure he is fully equipped with the solutions his team needs.
“Working with Cynthia over the last two years has been great. Even if I just send her a link from somewhere else and say I need 500 of these or something similar, she is able to find what we need, at good price, and get it here when I need it” – Chris Gardner
Value of Cooperative Partnership
Gardner and his team utilize cooperative purchasing to help them manage their facilities because of the benefits they feel it brings.
“Since we are utilizing taxpayer money, we are considered a government entity when it comes to requirements and guidelines. Cooperative purchasing helps on my end because I know the contracts are compliant..” – Chris Gardner
When looking to select a supplier partner, they chose to work with Global Industrial because of their solutions and the fact that they utilize state contracts. Gardner is able to save immense time and money by utilizing this agreement because he doesn’t have to spend time getting everything approved by the board.
About Global Industrial & OMNIA Partners
With over 70 years of industrial knowledge built into each one of our million-plus products, Global Industrial is an industry leader for public sector agencies across North America.
From material handling to janitorial and maintenance solutions, including our line of Global Industrial Exclusive Brands, “We can supply that” is at the heart of everything we do and provide through OMNIA Partners.
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