Andrea Gintert and Fransciso Saavedra talk about Ohio State to UTEP students.

Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) is a key service area within The Ohio State University under the direction of Melissa Bellini, Associate Vice President. FOD is responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of the university physical environment.

Under the leadership of Bellini, FOD had discussions with representatives from the Ohio Hispanic Faculty and Staff (OHFS) and the Hispanic Oversight Committee (HOC) about working collaboratively to enhance diversity in the workforce, particularly related to Hispanic/Latin@ professionals. Because Ohio is a very limited market for Latin@ professional recruitment, FOD explored other viable options on recruitment strategies. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was identified as a target institution for a partnership and has an engineering school that is one of the leading engineering schools in the nation. While it attracts excellent students from all over the world, UTEP draws talent extensively from the Hispanic/Latin@ community, due to its location. One of FOD’s goals is to diversify the workforce by improving the presence of Hispanics and Latin@s. “One of the actions we have taken towards this goal has been to enter into an agreement with UTEP to promote engineering and business opportunities in FOD with those students of UTEP,” said Bellini.

Francisco Saavedra from FOD interacting with UTPE students.

As a first step in establishing this partnership, Bellini visited UTEP in late September and met with key administrators, including Dr. Carlos Ferregut, Division Director within the College of Engineering, and several key administrators in the UTEP Career Services division in support of:

1. Recruitment of professional and diverse staff in the areas of project management, business, engineering, and technical service positions for the Department of Facilities Operations and Development at The Ohio State University.

2. Recruitment assistance, including assistance with job listings, alumni and student recruitment and departmental partnering efforts.

3. Implementation of a cooperative education program between OSU FOD and UTEP.

4. Participation in two annual career events, including the Spring Engineering and Sciences recruiting event and the Fall Career Expo event.

Two members of the FOD staff — Francisco Saavedra, a Senior Utilities Engineer, and Andrea Gintert, Director of Human Resources — had the opportunity to participate in the UTEP Fall Career Expo in late September. Ohio State and FOD were among more than 100 large, private companies and public organizations to compete for the rich talent that UTEP has to offer. Francisco and Andrea spoke with hundreds of prospective employees, some early in their education and interested in internships, and many ready to graduate and willing to consider making the Midwest their new home. They brought back many resumes from interested participants.

Facilities Operations and Development staff have reviewed the resumes that were received and identified a potential applicant pool of 5-8 candidates that they will be interviewing for open support and management positions within FOD. Members of the FOD leadership team will be visiting the University again in early December to conduct interviews. Facilities Operations and Development has made diversity recruitment and partnering with the HOC and OHFS a top strategic priority for its leadership team and 2007/2008 goals because FOD realizes the benefit of gaining Hispanic/Latin@ employees who are able to grow within the organization.

For a more detailed description of FOD’s services, please visit http://www.fod.osu.edu.