On any given day there is a real possibility you’ll find Tammy Collins, assistant facilities manager in the College of Education, sitting outside the building waiting for the cops to show up.
“I’m the first-response person if the alarm goes off,” said the 22-year UI employee. “If the alarm goes off at 2 a.m., I get the call. It happens and you just deal with it.”
The calls are admittedly infrequent, but illustrate the lengths to which Collins is willing to travel to ensure the five buildings she manages are being cared for.
Collins, who has worked for the college for half her UI career, started in the department of electrical and computer engineering, where she “kind of did a little bit of everything.” She started as a receptionist, but soon found her job description –
not to mention her skill set – increasing.
She would eventually take on several different positions in the business and accounting office.
“I was able to move around a lot, which is something I really like,” she said. “I don’t like doing the same thing all the time. At engineering, I think I touched base on just about everything.”
Prior to working at the UI, she had worked for Carle Clinic, where many family members were employed, as a secretary/receptionist.
She said she welcomed the opportunity to work at the university because she thought there might be increased advancement opportunities.
“I just knew there were so many more things I was capable of doing,” she said.
Collins was born in the Champaign area, her parents having escaped from Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution. Her parents originally set up in Champaign, then moved to St. Joseph.
“(My father) picked Illinois because he liked the seasons and the climate,” she said.
Collins met her husband, John, an operations supervisor for the city of Urbana, during their teenage years.
“Actually, we met on campus just on a fluke,” she said. “Back in the day, people used to cruise the campus just to have a spot to hang out.”
But it would be another seven years before the two started dating, and three more before they married. Collins’ family includes a 23-year-old stepdaughter, an 18-year-old son who recently joined the Marines, and a 14-year-old daughter who attends Champaign Central High School.
As assistant facilities manager, Collins is in charge of five different building spaces under College of Education auspices. They include the main building on Sixth Street, Colonel Wolfe School near Fourth and Healey streets, the Children’s Resource Center on Gerty Drive, and class space on Green Street and inside the Armory.
“This job has changed from the day I started,” she said. “It’s anything from getting a light bulb changed or a toilet fixed, and then it just kind of evolves from there. I coordinate a lot of those things and of course, any major projects that go on.”
Because of the number of buildings, and ever-changing, grant-funded work, Collins said she spends a lot of time ensuring employees and faculty members have proper working spaces and reserved classrooms.
“We’re constantly moving people,” she said. “It’s a never-ending thing around here.”
She also is chief “key-giver,” is in charge of equipment inventory, is the unit security contact, the classroom scheduler and most recently, is helping with the move to unified communications.
“That last one was just kind of thrown at me, but I’ve already got a good handle on it,” she said.
As for classroom scheduling, “I have a little puzzle I work with. I try to be fair about who gets what, but it’s not easy,” she said. “It’s a constant shift of people and you need a lot of organizational skills to do this. Fortunately, I like puzzles.”
She also troubleshoots for any of those responsibilities if things go unexpectedly awry.
Take the aforementioned late-night alarms, where she must roll out of bed and meet fire or police officials at one of the College of Education buildings.
“There was a time I was getting called all the time,” she said.
But that changed after an office walkthrough showed the motion-sensor alarm was being triggered by a helium-filled
balloon tethered to a worker’s desk.
“Early on we realized you have to be careful about what you have in your office space,” she said.
Collins said she doesn’t have a lot of hobbies outside of work, except watching her youngest daughter play volleyball and keeping in contact with her Marine son.
“I don’t have that much time for myself, so mostly I just cheer for them,” she said.
As for work, she’s happy to keep adding responsibilities to her job description and said she’s never regretted coming to the UI.
“I’ve got a great boss, amazing co-workers and an office with a great view,” she said. “You don’t get that at many places.”
