Name: Paul Goode

Job title: Senior Support Technician (Facilities Management)

Department: Life Sciences and Warwick Medical School

Number of years at Warwick: 20

There’s no such thing as a typical day, but, in brief, my job involves...

working with the members of the Schools to maintain an overview of the estate we occupy, working on projects and progressing maintenance requirements to make necessary changes and improvements to provide a working environment where workers can dedicate their time and efforts to research and teaching. I do this by maintaining good working relationships with the Estates Office, their contractors, and contractors we engage ourselves as well as the members of the two Schools.

I started here as a Lab Technician in a Biotechnology Lab 20 years ago, after spending 25 years before that at the pointy end of polymers research in industry.

My most memorable moment at Warwick has been...

getting appointed as the Chief Technician in the then newly-opened Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI) within the now defunct Department of Biological Sciences here at Gibbet Hill. It was a significant promotion for me into a management role, and a major privilege to be there at the handover of a brand new building needing to be populated and equipped for cutting edge Biomedical Research. I held that post in various forms for about 12 years I think, until the money ran out.

In my time at Warwick, the biggest change I’ve seen is...

in a word, growth. The campus development over the last 20 years has been phenomenal, and it shows no signs of ending any time soon. We are soon to begin building the new Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building here at Gibbet Hill as the first step in a 25 year development programme for Gibbet Hill campus. Apparently, you can tell how successful a university is by the number of cranes on the campus!

Warwick's kept me here because...

as a Coventarian I want to continue to live and work in my home city, and our University is a great place to earn a living in that city. I think the combination of having various posts here, the opportunities to have progressed my career here, the beautiful campus we have to work at – and spend time relaxing and enjoying at times – and those colleagues I’ve met who I like to think are friends are the things which have kept me here.

At the moment I'm really enjoying working on...

contributing to the design and specification of the science spaces in the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB), hoping that the things we learned during the time we have occupied other spaces here at Gibbet Hill, particularly the BMRI, can be incorporated into this building to make it the best it can be – without making some of the same mistakes! It’s just great when something you have worked hard on comes together and is successful and appreciated, especially something of the magnitude of a whole new multimillion pound building.

It would be really useful to work more closely with...

the other science departments, Engineering, WMG etc. It has always surprised me just how much the different entities on campus exist in silos! The Technician Commitment and the possibility of a forthcoming Facilities Management Working Group should help to address this at the support staff levels I think.

Warwick’s unique because...

it is distinctive in so many ways. One of these ways would be the beautiful setting we have for our campus. I know that a lot of the members of our University appreciate this, it is certainly something very special to us all.

If I could change one thing at the University, it would be...

to take our beautiful campus setting to the next level. I would love to see the gardens be looked after more diligently, more seasonal planting, greater care given to the more formal of the grassed areas, trees pruned, hedges cut, litter picked – or better still not dropped(!), bins emptied more often, more places to sit outside, no smoking outdoor areas, Gibbet Hill Duck Pond and Japanese Garden restored and maintained. That kind of thing would inspire more people to take care of and enjoy our campus more I think.

I'm really glad I got involved with...

the Tuesday lunchtime campus walks. I have had my eyes opened to just how many people had not ventured far from their desks or offices until they were tempted to give these walks a try! Shame these are term-time only, some of us are here in the holidays you know!

On campus, I recently visited…

I love the Mead Gallery. It is an oasis of calmness and quiet in the bustle of our campus, and the exhibitions are sometimes real eye-openers giving much food for thought. Where do some of those ideas come from? Sometimes that’s the clever part I think.

I recently had lunch at Gibbet Hill café and I was pleasantly surprised by a change from my routine sandwich lunch, but the prices… ouch!

I make use of…

the Learning and Development Centre courses when appropriate subjects are up for grabs, and I have attended quite a few of the Counselling Service workshops. Both are valuable sources of knowledge, or perhaps refreshment for where one has gone a bit rusty!

My favourite place on campus is...

Probably the Cryfield sports pitches area. It is such a wide open green space, away from the bustle, and a credit to the groundskeepers. A walk there from Gibbet Hill, a stroll around the edge of a pitch or two and back is just right for a lunchtime break from being indoors. In May when the Tocil Wood is full of bluebells and a detour around the woodland path is there for the taking, it’s hard to beat!

We are privileged to have such great architecture on our campus too. Some of our buildings are spectacularly beautiful I think. I particularly like The Oculus, the International Digital Laboratory and also the refurbished Benefactors. All different to one another, but all very worthy to me I think.

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