Behind the Scenes, Ahead of Every Need

Late one afternoon on the day before students were due to arrive for the new academic year, Tufts' Medford grounds crew got an urgent call: Two beds were missing from rooms in Latin Way, an undergraduate residence hall on the Medford/Somerville campus.

Crew members who had been mowing lawns and trimming vegetation changed course. They located two beds, transported them to the residence hall, and got the rooms set up in time for move-in. The request had little to do with groundskeeping as most people imagine it. But for a team regularly called upon to solve unexpected problems across campus, it was all in a day's work.

As Campus Services Manager Henry Puza puts it: "That's the nature of the job. We start each day with a plan, but then a call comes. Whatever is needed, the crew gets redirected and we get it done."

That kind of responsiveness earned Puza's team Tufts' inaugural President's Award last month at the university's annual Distinction Awards ceremony. The new award recognizes staff members whose work has made an exceptional contribution to the university community. In this case, it celebrates a team that often goes unnoticed precisely because it keeps campus life running so smoothly.

The 27-member team includes groundskeepers, drivers, utility staff, and a maintenance mechanic. Together, they maintain lawns, gardens, trees, and athletic fields; prepare the grounds for each season; haul equipment and deliveries; support events; respond to storms; and handle last-minute needs that fall outside ordinary job descriptions.

That range is especially apparent during Commencement. The crew prepares tent sites, installs signage, positions planter boxes and podiums, and sets out more than 20,000 chairs-all while tending to regular maintenance tasks. "They build the setting for one of the university's most important days," Puza says. "It just wouldn't be possible without them."

Events like Commencement can bring 60- and 70-hour weeks, while storms may require overnight shifts or pre-dawn calls. This past winter, after two back-to-back storms each dropped more than 18 inches of snow on the Hill, crew members worked nights and weekends clearing roads, walkways, and entrances. Some team members slept on campus so they could respond as conditions changed.

Henry Puza, Campus Services Manager

The same adaptability is essential when bad weather threatens events already underway. During Reunion Weekend, the crew used sandbags to secure tables and portable restrooms, fans and blowers to dry a soaked tent, and whatever tools were needed to clear fallen limbs and clogged storm drains. During the 2025 NESCAC softball championship, rain forced the cancellation of a full day of competition; early the next morning, crew members arrived with rakes and backpack blowers to make the waterlogged field playable in time for three games that day.

"They are at their best when circumstances change," Puza says. "They know the campus, they know their equipment, and they know how to create workable solutions for sudden problems. That morning during the championship, it seemed impossible that the games would happen-but they did it."

Puza understands the demands of the work firsthand. Trained in landscape contracting and landscape architecture, he joined Tufts as a groundskeeper in 2021 before moving into management. His responsibilities now include overseeing services on the Medford/Somerville campus, helping to manage custodial operations on the Boston Health Sciences campus, and working to align grounds operations on the Grafton campus with those in Medford.

The group poses for a photo before the Distinction Awards event

Puza's firsthand understanding is shared by many members of the crew, some of whom have worked at Tufts for 15 or 20-even 40 years. "The team takes a lot of pride in what they do," Puza says. "They know that even their most routine tasks contribute to someone's experience of Tufts, and they feel deeply connected to the community."

Puza's respect for the crew is rooted not only in his years managing them, but also in having done the job himself. His appreciation deepened during Commencement this year, he noted, when a staffing shortage led him to spend several hours setting up and stacking chairs with the team.

"When you do the work yourself, you understand how much goes into it," he says. "I'd forgotten what it was like to open one chair-and then open a thousand of them. It reminded me of how much the crew accomplishes every day and how hard their work is."

That perspective made the President's Award especially meaningful. The recognition gave the team a rare chance to pause and hear that its efforts had been noticed, according to Puza. "It meant a lot to see the whole team celebrated," he says. "Day after day, they do the work that Tufts depends on-and then they come back ready for whatever is needed next."

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