Under the tennis courts in the Facilities Management office, the Grounds Manager Lola Trafecanty spends her time assigning tasks to the grounds workers, working with outside landscape contractors and using her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture to add to Occidental’s landscape. According to Trafecanty, her mother inspired her love for plants and the landscape.
“I always loved plants and so did my mother. She was always in the garden with plants and she loves roses,” Trafecanty said. “My mom grew up on a farm in Mexico, so they grew what they ate, so that was in my family.”
According to Trafecanty, she came to Occidental seven years ago after being asked by a previous director of Facilities. Before Occidental, Trafecanty worked at Scripps College for 18 years.
“As a mother, when your children are younger, your life revolves around them, sports and school and events, so I wanted to always be close to them, and Scripps allowed me that opportunity,” Trafecanty said. “I also grew up in Pasadena, and I had family in Pasadena [and] Altadena, and so I knew I had a place to stand.”
Trafecanty said she keeps a broader weekly schedule because working in Facilities is very unpredictable.
“Schedule is hard to keep in this environment — anything in Facilities, really,” Trafecanty said. “We tend to get a lot of little ‘fires,’ as we call them, that we need to put out. Not literally, to be clear.”
6:30 a.m.
According to Trafecanty, her morning routine starts with arriving at Occidental around 6:30 a.m. and walking through the grounds to take note of any areas that may be overgrown or have been overlooked throughout the week. Trefecanty said her favorite spot is the Academic Quad because of its history. She said it was designed by one of the first registered woman landscape architects in the U.S., Beatrix Farrand.
“I like to spend time with my staff out in the fields, so I usually park at the top of the solar panels because it gives me a chance to just walk through the campus and see the lighting and vegetation,” Trafecanty said. “I take mental notes as I come down to anything that is new, things that we need to address down the road.”
1:15 p.m.
Trafecanty said she usually has meetings at 1:15 p.m., and on Mondays, she attends a Facilities Management meeting, where she and her team discuss anything that happened over the weekend.
“We debrief on any emergency calls that came in, and we ask, ‘was it addressed?’ ‘who’s addressing it?’ ‘what’s our goal and what’s the deadline?’” Trafecanty said. “I have set meetings with different departments, different days of the week, and then as special events are occurring on campus. It’s a big thing in planning with the group.”
According to Trafecanty, she doesn’t have a fixed lunch break either, so she eats when it is most convenient.
Trafecanty said one consistent part of her day is the staff’s break schedule, which is a time when she feels it is important for her to be in the office to talk with staff.
“I try to be here when they come in for breaks, so 8:15 a.m., 10:30–11:00 a.m. is their lunch because they come in at 6:00 a.m., and then 1:00 p.m. is their afternoon break,” Trafecanty said. “So, I’m there in case they need to talk to me or reach out for some reason, or I may have something that came up that can be addressed.”
2:30 p.m.
Trafecanty said once her staff leaves for the day at 2:30 p.m., she stays in her office and handles any invoices, project set-up requests and budget requests for special projects, such as the volleyball court in front of Stewart-Cleland Hall (Stewie).
“I have a degree in landscape architecture and that helps me lay things out and plan things from a design perspective,” Trafecanty said. “If you go by Stewie Beach, there are these benches that were poured with concrete by the new palm trees that are going into the building, so they’re wavy, like ocean waves, conceptual — that’s my design world.”
Trafecanty said she believes in including student voices in any big projects that affect residential areas. She said she is currently involving art students from Stewie to help embellish the cement benches that will be put into Stewie’s front walk.
“I believe in working with students and having them partake where they can,” Trafecanty said. “As a matter of fact, we created a flyer with a link, with my student worker and some other students who were working with sustainability, to help report irrigation leaks.”
Trafecanty said she also works a lot with the Grounds Supervisor, Samuel Ludwig, who has helped ease her workload since he came to Occidental in March 2025.
Ludwig said there is a lot of work done behind the scenes to maintain the grounds, besides ground work, like projects that they worked on during Summer 2025, as well as events such as family weekend. According to Ludwig, Facilities worked on creating a volleyball court, a pickleball court and painting the basketball court.
Lugwig said Facilities routinely performs basic maintenance tasks like cutting down tree branches for safety and growth, as well as takes on larger projects such as planting palm trees in front of Stewie and taking out trees on the steps of the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center (AGC).
“These are the kinds of things that are above and beyond the regular maintenance of the facility,” Ludwig said. “We work together as a team, we have a lot of meetings where our goals are aligned on what we’re planning on doing and how we’re going to make the place better for students.”
Trafecanty said she had a student worker up until last year, Mariarelis Flores (junior). However, there is no longer enough budget for a student worker, according to Trafecanty.
Flores said when she worked under Trafecanty, it was always busy and Trafecanty was out helping the grounds staff around campus. According to Flores, Trafecanty needed more help on the administrative side. She said an integral part of her job was to be there if work orders came in and to assign urgent ones to members of the staff working in those areas.
“I liked working there because I like organization. That’s just something I’ve always been good at, so I really liked being able to help her in that aspect,” Flores said. “Just being able to have another set of hands was helpful, because Trafecanty was always trying to do a million things at once.”
4:00 p.m.
Trafecanty said she usually goes home around 4:00 p.m., where she unwinds and sets a plan for the week because she can rest at home and just think. She said she also likes to keep her exercise up throughout the week.
“I would say that’s my favorite time because it just allows me to focus,” Trafecanty said. “I do a lot of hiking, walking. I’m supposed to run — my husband and my boys are runners — and so they influenced me.”
Trafecanty said that while preparing for the week, she also likes to think about bigger projects for the campus, like the olive picking tradition, The Olive Harvest. She said she brought this tradition from Scripps College and has implemented it at Occidental a few times. Trafecanty said that it would be nice to have a tradition where the staff is a part of commencement. She said another idea is to have a day where students, faculty and staff come together and help clean up Occidental, in some way to engage students and visitors with the natural flora of the campus.
“I think just engaging with the natural elements is something I’ve always felt was important, ” Trafecanty said. “Being able to share this nature with those who come to campus is why I think it is important for me to maintain the grounds.”
Trafecanty said to please provide feedback on Occidental’s grounds work at jtrafecanty@oxy.edu
Contact Miriam Arenal at arenal@oxy.edu
