Troy Parker might be the only Lamar University employee who gets big hugs for a completed job. For nearly 13 years, Troy served LU as an HVAC technician. In the last six months he was promoted to HVAC supervisor and boasts of keeping Cardinals cool for 14 years.
"I definitely liked the technician job, because you would go to people’s dorms or offices, and they were hot when you got there and then when you left, people were happy and cool," said Troy. "You know people are a little testy when they’re hot."
Sometimes air conditioning problems are operator error. Troy says many times someone has inadvertently turned their air conditioning off, and he simply turns it on. Other times, Cardinals are unfamiliar with how to work a thermostat and so he shows them how.
“It happens a lot more than you’d think, it’s just the person pushing the buttons,” said Troy. “But I remember this one guy in the dorms. He was in his shorts when I got there and said, ‘Man, I’m dying in here.” I told him I was going to fix his air conditioner and I did. He was about 6-foot 5 and gave me a big hug and said, ‘thank you, man; thank you, man’ over and over.”
Troy holds an HVAC certificate and an associate’s degree in HVAC from LIT and is taking two classes a semester at LU to earn a bachelor’s in industrial technology. As supervisor, he manages roughly 10 HVAC and boiler technicians and refrigeration technicians. - LU’s facilities ‘fix-it’ folks who take care of not just AC units across the campus, but the cooling towers and air pumps and all refrigerators and ice machines.
“Just changing the filters around campus is a full-time job; it’s ongoing,” said Troy. “Once we get completely around campus to change the air filters, it’s time to start over again. It’s one guy’s job. All he does is replace air filters.”
Typically, Troy and his crew, who work out of the South-Central Plant across from the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences building, complete maintenance tasks during the summer and over spring break when fewer people are on campus. However, the team has been working diligently to complete all maintenance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of maintenance is going on right now,” said Troy. “If we did shut the campus down, it’s like times during hurricanes, we still have people here. Someone is going to be here even if they do send us home.”
