It’s not unusual for the UGA police to call Greg Albanese at 3 in the morning. As associate director for the Tate Student Center facilities, it’s part of the job.
Albanese is in charge of the space at the Tate Student Center, Memorial Hall, Legion Pool and Legion Field. So if the Tate elevator doors open for no apparent reason or if students crash the pool after hours, that can mean coming to campus and starting work extra early.
And while the police might wake up him, it’s not something he minds.
“Occasionally, something will happen. An alarm will go off or they’ll be a problem and I’ll get up and ride over here to take care of it. This happens once or twice a semester,” he said. “Other duties as assigned,” he added with a laugh.
Albanese has been with the university since his days as a student worker—making UGACards for new students going through orientation. He’d take the pictures and then hand out the IDs. After one semester, he was promoted to student manager—a job he kept for three years, before landing a full-time accounting job in the Tate business office the semester before he graduated. His next step up was to facilities, where three job titles later, he’s been ever since.
Jerry Anthony, director of the business office for the dean of students, hired Albanese in June 1995, when the campus converted to the one-card system in place today.
“In a very short time Greg demonstrated his maturity and willingness to do whatever was needed of him,” Anthony said. “He is loyal, dedicated and hard working. He is also one of the most likeable people you will ever meet.”
Albanese has spent all 17 years in the Tate Student Center. But there’s a perk to spending so much time on campus—meeting his wife Mandi Albanese, an administrative specialist in the Office of Academic Planning.
Since coming to work in central campus, he’s seen the space change from once housing Stegeman Hall, an indoor pool located at the center of campus before the Ramsey Center was built, to hosting a new parking deck and the 100,000 square-foot-addition to the Tate Student Center.
And, with that expansion comes more space for Albanese to oversee—more meeting rooms, walls to tape posters up on and even the marble arch that stays cordoned off most of the year.
In total, 1.8 million people pass through the Tate Student Center every year. That traffic means wear and tear on the building, and translates to about
200 work orders a year, ranging from broken chairs to walls that need repainting.
If there’s a roof leak, the air conditioning breaks or Memorial Hall floods, Albanese is the guy to call.
When he’s not getting the pool ready to open next month or filling out paperwork, Albanese restores classic cars. He currently is finishing up the interior of a red and black 1981 Corvette—a project he hopes to complete by early summer. It’s his third restoration. He’s also restored a dark green 1972 Buick Skylark with a heavily modified 455-cubic-inch motor and a 1972 Buick Grand Sport . His next project is a 1969 Buick Wildcat that his late grandfather, Louis, bought new.
“I just like taking care of things,” Albanese said. “I like it when you can see an end result after you’ve worked on a project.”