From toilet paper to toner, Marc Paine purchases what Lamar University needs to operate day to day. The associate buyer is proud to supply the entire campus with everything it needs to operate.
"I like being a part of what makes this university run,” said Marc. “We are essential to getting goods and services needed on this campus daily and that’s fulfilling to me… knowing I get to help others; it’s satisfying in that sense.”
In the days of the coronavirus pandemic, toilet paper ordering is challenging, but the university’s need for printer and copier toner as well as new technology is on the upswing, and Marc really enjoys learning about and purchasing items to move the university forward.
“I’m the buyer for the IT department, so I have a good eye and ear for what’s happening there,” said Marc. “I’m hardly caught up before it’s time to buy, refresh and renew again. It’s amazing how it changes so fast with not just IT but with our distance learning group and our deaf education group. These are the largest growing departments on the campus, based on what I can see happening, just daily, with all the things that are needed.”
Marc also oversees the Procard, the university procurement card. Each department receives a card that is approved but subject to strict procurement methods. According to Marc, there are daily, regular procurement methods and emergency methods based on specific situations like hurricanes, floods and pandemics. When he was first given the task of managing the Procard, Marc got into the habit of taking all of the information home with him every night.
“Something just told me it was important, and I should have it on me at all times,” said Marc. “Along came Harvey, and I was in water up to my knee caps and helping make financial arrangements for LU sports’ teams across the country to stay safe and to get them home. I didn’t let a little thing like a flood get me down.”
Well before COVID-19 became an issue in the U.S., Marc said his department formed a sort of hand sanitizer task force to source the germ protecting gel for LU’s sanitizer stations. “We were reaching out across the nation looking for hand sanitizer,” said Marc. “We’d find some and jump on it like we were in attack mode. We sounded the alarm and reached out to all of our resources to make sure our campus could continue to have hand sanitizer at all of its stations. And that’s how you know a good purchaser. They know where to go to get things.”
In his beloved office in the Plummer Building (which he’d like to have back after the renovation), Marc and his fellow co-workers alternate duties during these days of social distancing. They get creative. They explore all options, exhaust all resources and plan to keep the university supplied with all of its daily needs.
“What’s happening right now is a testament to this university; we take punches as they come and we are all doing the best we can with what we have and making the best decisions on a daily basis. We’ll continue to do that for the university,” said Marc.
Marc, who took finance classes at LU, says the university has always been a part of his life. His dad attended LU, and he remembers going to events on campus when he was young.
“Going to school here is what allowed me to start my career, and to finish here is poetic justice,” said Marc.
