About a month after starting as vice president for campus planning and facilities, Lisa Hogarty is planning for the College’s new housing system and ensuring that buildings are well-maintained.
Hogarty, appointed in February, said her job is to oversee the operations and management of College facilities, ranging from commercial properties in Lebanon to graduate schools and residence halls.
“We’re making sure that we make people’s environments as comfortable as possible,” she said. “We want the service to be as good as it can be and to reflect the excellence of the institution.”
She said that this term, she will focus on preparing the current residence halls for the switch to a new housing system. The College will introduce living learning communities in the fall, Board of Trustees chair Steve Mandel ’78 announced March 21 in an email. These residential spaces, open to upperclassmen, will include current affinity houses and new residential communities based around a common theme, as well as a design-your-own option. The first step, she said, is using a facility condition index to measure the current state of campus buildings.
Hogarty said that, compared to those at Dartmouth’s peer institutions, most buildings are in good shape.
Campus planning and facilities is currently working on fixing the roof of the Alumni Gym and updating safety systems in several of the residence halls, Hogarty said.
She has also been working on the capital projects budget, which includes construction and renovations with capital costs over $25,000.
“It’s how we make sure that the new programs are going to rise to the level of institutional priority and making sure they are well thought-through, how the costs will change based on the new program, so we can maintain the building once it is built,” she said.
The biggest change in the College’s capital budget, she said, will come from the proposed expansion to the Thayer School of Engineering. Hogarty said she is also working on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine’s Williamson Translational Research Building.
Campus planning and facilities project management director Matthew Purcell, who will work with Hogarty on the Kappa Delta house and the Triangle House, a residence for LGBTQ students and allies, said their team will work to deliver projects that help the College “meet its vision and goals.”
Frank Roberts, associate vice president of facilities, operation and management, said he looks forward to working with Hogarty because of her focus on improvement.
“She comes from a background of service and has a vision for providing service,” he said.
Hogarty, who previously served as Harvard University’s vice president of campus services, said her favorite project at the university was installing chairs in Harvard Yard to make it a “destination” for students and community members.
“It used to feel like the Sistine Chapel and now, people feel like they can stay and hang out there,” she said.
She said the biggest difference between her work at Harvard and her current work at the College is the scale.
“It’s all the work that I did at Harvard but at an institutional level,” Hogarty said. “I think about this job as an ability to plan, design, build and run a program. It’s very holistic.”
So far, she said, she has enjoyed working with colleagues and students, noting a high level of engagement.
