March 29, 2023 – Meet Jerry Vasquez, Physical Plant Service Worker III for Facilities’ Downtown Maintenance team. In his day-to-day role, Jerry travels between all of UTSA’s downtown campuses and assists wherever help is needed. His focus is on repair and maintenance of various plumbing systems, but he also lends a hand for everything from painting to electrical work.
When the Southwest School of Art integrated with UTSA in July 2022 to become the Southwest Campus, Jerry brought his 16 years of experience working at the school to UTSA, greatly benefitting the university in keeping the historical buildings’ systems up and running. Although Jerry can be found working at any of UTSA’s downtown campuses, he knows the Southwest Campus and its history better than anyone.
“A teacher once took a picture of me and she told me later that she had turned it into a painting,” Jerry said. “It was awesome! It looked just like me, but it made me laugh because she had painted me a bit thinner than I was. It was funny.”
Although the work can be challenging at times, Jerry embraces every new challenge and truly enjoys what he does. “I just love being here,” Jerry explains. “The campus is awesome and I enjoy coming to work every day. We have a great team and we all pull together when we need to.”
When Jerry isn’t at work, he loves to barbeque and spend time with his family. With 11 grandkids and another on the way, Jerry keeps busy both on and off the job. As he puts it, “Life is good. Birds up!”