Howard W. Hewitt – Wabash College’s campus services group, Sodexo, always does a great job making the campus beautiful. Over graduation, Big Bash, and fall football weekends our alumni frequently praise the workers for how nice the campus always looks.
Campus Services recently won a national honor from the Professional Grounds Management Society for its working keeping the campus looking nice. Wabash won a Green Star Honor Award in the small college and grounds category. Only seven national colleges were honored. The Green Star competition brings national recognition to grounds maintained with a ‘high degree of excellence, and complements other national landscape award programs that recognize outstanding design and construction.’
“Thanks to Tim Riley and his team for their outstanding efforts all year round,” said David Morgan, Director of Campus Services. “This is a significant national recognition of the program Tim has developed and operated for years here at Wabash.”
Riley has taken on the challenge of giving the campus a fresher look. Much of the landscaping around older campus buildings has been updated in recent years.
“Each summer we take a building with older, over-grown landscapes and completely start over,” Riley wrote in the submission for the award. “Current trends are low-growing perennials and shrubs that don’t require much pruning, watering, deadheading, or fertilization. It has been a challenge to develop a plant palate that can be the best of the best.
“Since 2010, new landscape beds and most new turf installations are not irrigated. Expectations have been managed to allow turf to go dormant in certain areas and once landscape plantings are established, they can survive on their own. Indiana usually receives enough rain fall to allow this.”
The 43rd annual awards honored 29 grounds management programs for excellence, presenting six Grand Awards (the highest honor), 21 Honor Awards and two Merit Awards in 10 categories.
