On Nov. 18, 2025, 25 faculty and staff reductions occurred at Keene State. 17 individuals were affected and eight vacant positions remained as is. Of these reductions, two positions in the facilities and maintenance department were cut, as well as the department’s sustainability director.
As a result, the departments have had “more feathers in their caps, and we’ve split the tasks up amongst those who remain,” according to Colin Burdick, the acting director of facilities at KSC.
Additional departments across campus have also had “shifts in responsibility for faculty and staff due to the reductions, as well as a period of reviewing workload for those affected by the change,” as stated by associate vice president of student affairs Jen Ferrell in a previous Equinox article.
Burdick said any challenges within the facilities department did not stem from the reductions, but more from the weather conditions of this past winter.
“It’s [the weather] a big unknown. We had a below-average temperature winter, meaning we were powering more. We were salting more. Thankfully, the salt shortage in the state really didn’t affect us and we were strategic with our self-distribution,” Burdick said. “All the storms happened on weekends, at night or early morning, so we had to get the campus open and safe for operations.”
Burdick said that those working in the department had to use more fuel oil throughout the season, which impacted the school’s continually decreasing budget.
Burdick also said that facilities and maintenance were working on figuring out the cost of necessities for next year, while still having to keep in mind the rising cost of oil.
As for what he wants his department to focus on next academic year, Burdick said he wanted to “maintain expectations with less money.” He said they’ve set a high bar in terms of campus grounds and building maintenance, and he wanted to ensure the bar was met “while also trying to be nimble with our budget.”
Despite this, Burdick described his department as being able to “pick up the pieces and kind of absorb any difficulties and challenges.”
“We’re really good at flexing with what comes,” he said. “We’re not rigid. I don’t think any of the folks in our department have their days ‘set out’ when they come into the office, it’s just always something new.”
Burdick said that communication is an important part of the work his team does, especially with events. He said the lack of communication when people need assistance can lead to poor assumptions regarding grounds, facilities and maintenance’s capabilities.
Burdick encouraged the KSC community to utilize his department’s website, and said that when they get work orders, “90% of the time we can fix it that day.” He added that the exception would be if they need to order parts or schedule a shutdown.
“We can’t fix what we don’t know about,” said Burdick. “Just tell us what’s wrong and we’ll come fix it.”
Samantha Menard can be contacted at
