By Sarah Tomoser
The BYU facilities management program recently won the Interna-tional Facilities Management Asso-ciation [IFMA] student chapter of the year award for the third year in a row.
?I think it?s a very positive and distinctive award, of all the facility management programs not only in the United States but in other countries, it shows the quality of the program here at BYU,? said Bruce Alexander, a senior from Saranac, N.Y., majoring in facilities management.
The award was presented to 17 students in San Diego, Calif. at the World Work Peace convention. IFMA is the largest association of facilities management in the world.
“It”s fairly significant when over 500 top executives hear BYU win, especially for the third year in a row, when some of our competitors are Wentworth College, Cornell Uni-versity and Georgia Tech. I think that alone says a lot about our students and faculty,” said Nathan Christen-sen, the president of IFMA, from Farmington, Utah.
Facility managers ensure the supervision of planning, renovation and maintenance of buildings and grounds. Some of the buildings that are commonly maintained are air-ports, resorts, corporate buildings, convention centers, hotels and hospi-tals.
The demand for facilities man-agement graduates is great. The av-erage age of facility managers in the field currently is 60, said Jeff Camp-bell, an associate professor of facili-ties management. This opens up many opportunities for graduates to obtain quality jobs.
“We have experienced 100% job placement for the past few years, as long as graduates are willing to move outside Utah county,? Christensen said. ?Some students have already received offers.?
The facilities management pro-gram is a limited enrollment program, with a 40-50 percent acceptance rate.
?BYU produces quality students which get quality jobs,? Christensen said.
The impressive coursework and prestigious achievements of the facili-ties management program are attract-ing attention from potential students around the country.
Alexander looked into several programs and BYU was the one he wanted to attend, although he is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
?It just has more to offer in vari-ety and quality. It?s been a great ex-perience,? Alexander said. ?When I went into the program, I thought that it would be great and it?s been better than that.
