Before and After: Joel Ribout

Before and After

BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

It is sometimes hard to remember that life went on during the pandemic. Babies were born, people were promoted, couples got married, dogs were acquired. When we talk about “the before times,” a break in the space-time continuum is implied, when, for so many, the pandemic was folded awkwardly into the flow of life.

In February 2020, Joel Ribout became director of facilities—put in charge of a team of 50 people. With extreme equanimity, Ribout remembers that “My responsibilities grew tremendously. Every day brought new challenges.”

Students were sent home in March, which gave the staff a bit of breathing room to decide on next steps. Ribout stepped on a rapidly moving learning curve that included HVAC systems, CDC recommendations, cleaning, and a universe of disinfectant products (extended “dwell times,” for example, meant that many of these products had lost their potency—who knew?).

In the “before times,” work orders would be placed for, say, clogged toilets. But appointments to fix things now involved protocols. People who work in facilities generally have to appear in person. Major changes were required in the way these work orders were handled. Appointments were increasingly scheduled online. Ribout and his staff met every challenge. On the plus side, Ribout found that facilities directors at other Vermont colleges, particularly those in the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, increased their efforts to share information. “We developed relationships,” he reports, “that were not there before COVID.” At one point, Champlain College shared

a supply of N-95 masks with Saint Michael’s personnel. St. Mike’s later returned the favor.

Ribout, who has been with the college since 2015, is extremely proud that the College was able to be flexible with work schedules during the pandemic. “We didn’t put any pressure on people to come in,” he says.

One of Ribout’s first jobs on campus was overseeing the construction of a new residence, now named Cronogue Hall. “That’s my building,”

he says. Folks around campus jokingly called it “Ribout Hall” because it did not have an official name at the time. His favorite spot on campus? No hesitation: the Overlook. “I go there in fall, winter, spring, and summer, just to see the seasons change around Camel’s Hump.”

JOEL RIBOUT, DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES

Director of Facilities Joel Ribout