The custodial department keeps the facilities on our campus clean. Cleaning staff work day and night to ensure students and faculty have a safe and clean space to work, learn and teach. Custodial staff are engaged with four million square feet of cleaned spaces in educational and general (E&G) buildings on a daily basis, providing services before the sun comes up and after the sun goes down. The dedicated staff are always ready to tackle any mess that comes their way.

Design Services provides architectural and interior design services for construction and renovation projects on all of the university's campuses. The team provides space planning and assists with budget development to strategize the best use of departmental resources.

The interior design team establishes finish and furniture standards for the university and specifies finishes and furniture for large construction projects, department renovations and general requests. The architectural team provides building code analysis/feasibility review and construction documents for renovation projects requiring space reconfiguration.

We work with Construction Services to quickly and efficiently complete projects. Each year, we renovate multiple classrooms across the campus as part of the continual effort to upgrade general instruction spaces.

Requests for services can be made through the request service form.

Our Energy Management team is dedicated to optimizing the university’s energy use and minimizing its environmental impact. We develop long-term strategies for energy consumption, manage utilities meters and billing, oversee high voltage electrical maintenance, maintain steam, chilled water and condensate piping systems and provide building automation and controls across campus. Our annual expenditures for electricity, water and fuel are approximately $29 million to meet the needs of campus. This investment ensures efficient heating, cooling, lighting and water supply for the university.

The University has partnered with Johnson Controls, Inc. to provide the Building Automation System for campus. We have over 525,000 points across the campus that we use to monitor energy efficiency, identify issues, perform building scheduling and make adjustments to ensure optimal performance, comfort and sustainability.  

South Carolina's Columbia campus is comprised of over 400 acres of grounds, gardens and parking lots as well as an arboretum. With miles of walkways, one of the best ways to experience campus is to take a walk.

Our landscaping team oversees the maintenance and planting of our green spaces. Nearly 6,000 trees are managed within the landscape of our award-winning urban campus. The Arbor Day Foundation recognized the university with the Tree Campus Higher Education. South Carolina was the first school in the Southeastern Conference to receive this award. The university also received a Green Star Grand Award from the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) for our sound, professional grounds management program.

Services offered include:

• Grounds and Turf care
• Tree Maintenance
• Irrigation systems maintenance
• Masonry (flatwork) maintenance and repair
• Pest Control services
• Horticultural services
• Storm drain inlet upkeep
• Pressure cleaning services
• Refuse and waste services
• Special Event Support
• Storm clean up and repair
• Outdoor site amenities upkeep (benches, signs, bike racks, fountains, etc.)
• Snow and ice removal on those rare occasions

Facilities Maintenance is composed of skilled trade individuals that keep the university running smoothly. They ensure that each building operates to its full function, with the goal of providing superior customer service to each department and organization.

This group works on anything from generators, electrical, roofing, plumbing, building envelopes, HVAC, lighting and much more. Our job is to provide solutions to all issues relating to your facility. This group strives for communication, teamwork and organizational culture. Our staff provides quality service and results, no matter the issue.

Our team of dedicated professionals is focused on project management beyond maintenance but are not large capital projects, ranging from several thousand dollars to five million dollars typically. Projects could include minor renovations and enhancements of classroom and administrative spaces, campus beautification projects, roof and building envelope repair and replacement, utility plant and infrastructure upgrades, among others.

Utility Production ensures a continuous supply of steam and chilled water across more than 280 buildings. Our team is committed to reducing overall energy consumption through efficient and effective management strategies. Our district plants have installed capacity to produce nearly 200,000 pounds of steam per hour and over 30,000 tons of cooling. Our network includes over 21 miles of underground electric, steam, condensate and chilled water infrastructure, along with more than a mile of underground utility tunnels.

Our district energy systems produce steam and chilled water at central plants and then distribute them through underground pipes and cabling to connected buildings. This eliminates the need for individual boilers, chillers or cooling towers in each building, enhancing energy efficiency, reliability and fuel flexibility while reducing lifecycle costs and increasing comfort and convenience for our customers.

The Environmental Services team manages the disposal and recycling of university waste.

Our Gamecock Waste enterprise completes routes with over 150 trash and recycling dumpsters to remove over 300 pounds of student-generated trash each year.

We also supervise recycling efforts at South Carolina. Bins for paper, plastic and aluminum cans are convenient campus-wide. With help from our campus community, we are also able to collect a sizable amount of paper, metal, wood, electronics and other recyclable materials annually.

Our Carolina Recycling program fosters a healthy campus community by making waste reduction simple and convenient.

Work Management is a multi-faceted group that deal with the following:

• signage replacement and new orders
• service requests for work orders
• AiM work management system
• customer support center operations
• preventative maintenance record keeping
• locksmithing and key controls
• on-site inspections and follow-up on issues
• fleet management
• levee management
• flood mitigation operations
• campus insurance claims management
• storm preparations and severe weather emergency management operations
• special projects

Because the USC campus is a large-scale operation, there are circumstances where a one size fits all approach does not work. The group touches more than 25,000 work order requests in a given year and fills in the gaps with a consistent and tailored approach for gathering information, resources and providing solutions to problems.