Jorge Farinacci’s position with the University of Nevada, Reno’s Facilities Services is painter, a position he’s held since July 1, 2007. His supervisor, Sean Heenan, assistant director structural services, said he’s so much more.
“Jorge is a consummate painter and looked up to in the shop; his customer service is top-notch,” Heenan said. “We have received many compliments from our customers on his finished products, attention to detail and communication skills. Jorge is always looking to improve the canvas of the campus, as the painters call it.”
Some of the major projects Farinacci and his team have started over the past few years:
- Established a frequency to paint all trash cans on campus to ensure they look their best.
- Created a plan to paint all light poles throughout campus.
- Schedules the painting of the Chris Ault Field at Mackay Stadium.
- Ensures central and south campus are looking their best during graduation on the Quad.
“I truly love and enjoy my contribution to our campus as a painter,” Farinacci said. “We are a small part of a large operation of professionals including all trades and collectively we paint a beautiful picture for our students, our faculty and their families to enjoy.”
During this challenging year, Farinacci has stepped up and embraced the challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Jorge was the first to establish shop rules to ensure proper social distancing and methods to disinfect their work areas,” Heenan said. “This was prior to anything being sent out by the University. He has been fast, responsive, creative and demonstrative of true leadership for all the COVID initiatives the paint shop has been tasked with.”
Two specific examples include social distancing paw prints, ensuring six-foot distancing within each classroom, and directional painting down the middle of campus.
For the paws, Farinacci met with University Libraries’ @One Digital Media and Technology Center and discovered they could provide the decals, 530 of them, at 20% of the cost of competitors.
“His initiative to find the best price during our low economic time is one example of his caring and thinking out of the box,” Heenan said. “Jorge expands the capabilities of his trade and works closely with our grounds team to make the University of Nevada, Reno the most beautiful campus to all its students, faculty and visitors.”
A second example was the line delineation for walking through the main campus. The instructions given to the shop were to put a yellow line with arrows to assist with walking from the Joe Crowley Student Union to the southern part of campus, near the Pennington Student Achievement Center.
“Jorge approached me and requested to develop a stencil with a paw print for two reasons,” Heenan said. “Jorge stated we are using paw prints for line cuing and classroom social distancing. He thought using paws on campus with be a better marketing plan and would add a little fun during these challenging times. I submitted his idea to the interim committee, and they approved his plan. That is why we have the paws going north and south on campus.”
Farinacci is always trying to improve himself mentally and physically. Several Facilities team members have taken advantage of the gym membership and typically work out a lunch. Farinacci is one of those individuals. He is known for encouraging others and pushing them in a positive way to do their best at every workout.
“Facilities is lucky to have numerous outstanding employees such as Jorge Farinacci,” Heenan said. “He is one bright light among a team of greatness. We are lucky to have him.”
Farinacci wants to improve his leadership and professionalism spending his own money to attend many leadership classes.
“As an informal leader, I have the opportunity to bridge the gap between co-workers, supervisors and our customers in a way that delivers results aligned with the core values of the University,” Farinacci said. “It is for that reason I signed up and just completed a Supervisory Management certification through Extended Studies. Also, I am currently halfway through a Project Management certificate course to help me better understand how to deliver higher quality work without compromising the scopes, times and costs on future projects.”
From left to right, Becky Yazzie, Jason Lynn, Darren Schryer, Wyatt Brazell and Jorge-Farinacci of the University's Paint Shop Team.
