Facilities Manager Ian Jackson shares his insights with Phoebe Bradford into the cogs that keep the wheels of St. John’s turning.
I have to admit being slightly perturbed at the sight of a Van Mildert lanyard hanging over Ian’s monitor in his office… but we discuss this later. I’d highly recommend finding an excuse to visit Ian in his Haughton office, shared by Claire Hanson, Steven Podmore and Liz Hall, the latter of which could consider a career change to interior design given the serenity of the space she’s created in a communal office.
Since Ian’s arrival at St. John’s in 2022 (in my own Fresher’s week), he has had an incredibly positive and meaningful impact on our College community. Even if you haven’t had the chance for a chat with Ian, it’s likely you’ve had some kind of interaction through the Facilities department. The department that Ian heads is the underpinning of so many of our favourite parts of Johns. Not just the incredible accommodation and services offered in a uniquely special heritage building package, but the scenery, security and comfort that attracted so many of us here in the first place. For these reasons, I decided my first interview for the Chronicle should attempt to reveal the hard work and commitment shown by the maintenance team.
Ian joined His Majesty’s Armed Forces when just 16, remaining in service for 24 years. We only touched upon some of the stories from Ian’s Army career, including being stationed in Ireland and Bosnia, but given the decades he spent travelling, it says something about how lucky we are to study in the North East that Ian chose to settle here after leaving the Army.
“[after leaving the Army] I joined Teesside High School for Girls doing the Facilities manager job there. After a couple of years I moved to Durham University, working at Van Mildert College.”
Sensing my abhorrence to the idea that John’s would have been a second (even FOURTH) choice for Ian, he quickly adds,
“At that time, the way the university was set up, you tended to work at all different colleges. I was there for 15 years and I worked at a number of colleges. St. Aidan’s, the Business School, Stevenson College. And then I was fortunate enough to join St. John’s, which is always where I wanted to be, obviously.”
Not wanting to leave any readers dissatisfied with this answer, I probe Ian further on why he eventually arrived at St. John’s.
“I think I noticed the job came up.” I should have seen that answer coming really…
“St. Johns is really interesting, isn’t it? The age of the buildings, it’s a smaller college, so it’s a lot more intimate. You can get to know the students a lot more in that stuff. I prefer that.”
I was eager to hear what might have changed in Ian’s career since he’s come to John’s, so I ask if he’s learned anything while being here?
“The big difference from a work perspective is looking after heritage buildings. Which has been a massive learning curve for me. But it’s very enjoyable and interesting. Looking after heritage buildings involves a lot of complexities.”
Looking at his telling smile, I imagine there are some complexities that are more difficult to manage than others…
“Permissions. How you get permission to do any work on the buildings? The structure of it. And when you talk to the contractors that deal with these buildings, it’s just strange words like hot lime.” Ian did go on to explain the importance of hot lime in maintaining old buildings, which I personally found very interesting though we did go slightly off topic. If anyone is seeking an education in lime I’m sure the Facilities team would be happy to enlighten anyone with any questions.
If you’ve seen the Facilities team operating around college, it becomes clear that most of their responsibilities require a team effort- which I wanted to understand a bit more about.
“No two days are the same. It can range from overseeing maintenance, conservation work, to solving day-to-day problems. There is always a balance between respecting the past and the heritage, and the expectations of students and modern-day living.”
The reason I interviewed Ian was to give members of College an insight into the people that keep John’s going. It’s incredibly interesting to hear about the substantive elements of Ian’s job, but I think it’s necessary for our community to understand the human aspect of St. John’s, which Ian alludes to when I ask about his favourite part of the job.
“Seriously, my favourite part is the interaction with the students. I really do enjoy it. During vacation, although we’re really busy with doing lots of work, its like the soul leaves the college. It’s all quiet, there’s no laughing or anything like that.”
I don’t think you could ask for a better answer from someone charged with such a big role in looking after our community.
As I’ve got to know Ian, I realise how little I really understood about what working in the facilities team actually entails. I ask if there’s anything he wishes more students knew about the work Facilities does.
“It’s not so much ‘knew’, I’d say, but an understanding that these buildings… It’s like a living museum. I think students need to have an understanding that virtually, they are living in a museum, so there are challenges that come to me, to preserve what the buildings are supposed to look like, but then what a student would like as a modern day student flat.”
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