Grounds

Grounds employees working a job

Facilities Management’s Grounds team is committed to providing a safe and aesthetically pleasing outdoor experience within an urban setting for UIC students, staff and visitors. Grounds is responsible for daily maintenance of campus exterior landscape, sidewalks, parking lots, intramural, recreational, and NCAA fields as well as snow removal from campus sidewalks.

For urgent service requests, please call Facilities Customer Support at (312)  996-7511.

Contact FM Grounds Heading link

Grounds Main Office 6-2844 or (312) 996-2844
Director of Grounds - Carly Rizor 6-4647 or (312) 996-4647 rizorc6@uic.edu

Services Heading link

Grounds oversees 45 employees, including two foremen and two gardeners/sub-foremen. The department maintains approximately 250 acres, 4,240 trees, 90 miles of sidewalk, 400 waste containers, five parking structures and 34 surface parking lots. Its services include:

  • Mowing 90 acres of turf, recreational and athletic fields
  • Trimming shrubs and hedges
  • Pruning and removal of trees, working cooperatively with arborists
  • Maintaining annual and perennial landscape beds and containers
  • Weeding and licensed weed control activities
  • Executing pothole repair
  • Snow removal and ice control on all sidewalks
  • Working cooperatively with horticulturists, landscape architects and contractors to plan and execute landscapes that are aesthetically pleasing and practical to maintain.
  • Implementation and expansion of cloud-based tree inventory and solar- powered trash and recycling compactors.
  • Maintaining and monitoring irrigation systems
  • Removal of exterior biohazards
  • Staffing and set up for exterior campus events
  • Installation of landscape enhancements
  • Integrated pest management

Additional landscaping or grounds needs outside of these regularly-performed services can be requested by submitting a Service Request or emailing Facilities Customer Support for assistance.

Tree Inventory Heading link

Row of on-campus trees in the fall

The University of Illinois Chicago is among the few universities that participate in the Tree Campus USA program, which promotes effective tree management, campus community involvement, and nature connectivity among faculty members and students through forestry efforts.

Grounds collaborates with Sustainability to maintain the campus Tree Inventory.