AMHERST – It’s a drop in the bucket given the hundreds of thousands of dollars the University of Massachusetts Amherst spends on landscaping materials, but the disappearance of tulip bulbs on campus this winter has prompted new security measures at the troubled Physical Plant division.
According to UMass officials, a landscaping supervisor discovered in December that $400 worth of tulip bulbs were missing from a building at Physical Plant’s Tilson Farm location, prompting the division to change the locks on the entry to the building where the bulbs were stored.
“This area had been accessible to staff during the work day but is now locked at all times,” Ed Blaguszewki, a UMass spokesman wrote in an email response to questions by the Gazette.
Blaguszewski noted that at the time the tulip bulbs went missing, Gary Glazier, manager of landscape and construction services, called a meeting to discuss the matter with his staff.
“The staff said they didn’t have any knowledge of where the bulbs might be,” Blaguszewski wrote. “He emphasized the need to carefully track all materials at the facility.”
The university purchases about $450,000 in landscape materials annually, according to Shane Conklin, interim associate vice chancellor of Administration and Finance.
UMass officials said the incident is not connected to an ongoing internal investigation into alleged time-card fraud and misuse of campus resources in the Physical Plant division.
The university estimates the value of time and materials in question at approximately $50,000. The investigation involves Physical Plant’s building maintenance arm, with a focus on operations in its environmental services unit.
“There is no relationship,” Blaguszewski said Tuesday of the missing tulips and the time and materials probe still under way.
The investigation has forced at least two employees to resign in recent months while three employees remain on administrative leave in connection with the matter, according to the university.
The university reported in February that it was pursuing several measures to ensure accountability as a result of its review, including management of materials at on-campus supply locations.
Physical Plant is a division of Facilities & Campus Services with 600 employees and an annual budget of $42 million. It is responsible for the grounds, utilities, custodial services and building maintenance for nearly 7.6 million square feet of administrative, academic, and recreational space on the Amherst campus, according to its website.
The five departments within the organization are alterations, building maintenance, buildings and grounds, sustainability and utilities.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com or at 413-585-5239.