THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013
PAGE 7A
CAMPUS
Custodial workers give a face to campus cleanliness
EMMA LEGAULT
elegault@kansan.com
Janice Simmons wanted to be an artist when she grew up. Then, after she was done with school, she wanted to be an interior decorator.
"But you know what I ended up
"But, Cleaning," she said with a laugh.
"To me, it's a routine. I know I gotta do it, so I just get in there and do it," she said.
as, cleaning, are said with a laugh. Simmons has been a custodian at the University for 22 years—longer than some students have been alive. Every morning at 6:30 a.m., she starts her shift in Zone 5 (in the Spencer Museum of Art and Spencer Research Library) vacuuming, cleaning the entryway floors and cleaning the bathrooms.
"Nobody when they're young says. I'm going to grow up and be a custodian." Darlene Hall, Simmons' Zone 5 custodial manager, said. "It's not a glamorous job, but it's got benefits and perks to it. It does feel good when you take something that's bad and you make it look pretty"
Simmons has a sense of pride in what she does, especially after the laborious task of stripping and waxing a floor. But when it shines, people notice.
"Everybody's like, 'oh, your floors, they look good," Simmons said.
Without hesitation, Simmons said the bathrooms are the most dreaded part of the job.
"I go into some of the bathrooms and it's like, do you guys really live like this?" Simmons said with a sigh, "[There's] a toilet full of crap, still sitting in there from the day before"
"Or there paper all on the floors"
Simmons added. "Come on now."
"Some people just don't flush," Hall said.
similar adduct. Come on now.
In addition to the daily workload, Hall is responsible for fielding emergency calls from other buildings throughout the day to her team of seven custodians. Although Janice and her coworker don't have access to a vehicle, they recall one assignment they were sent on involving a brown, sticky mess left for them on a staircase.
"It's like we needed a facemask to clean it up" Simmons said. "Those are the kinds of jobs we have to do."
The praise they get is few and far between, but it makes the miserable moments worthwhile.
"There will be a few students who will not even get out of your way and look down on you, but then you'll pass one that will just look at you and say thank you," Hall said. "That always just makes you feel good."
In July 2012, Facilities Operations merged with Campus Housing to operate under one blanket depart
ment: Facilities Services. It includes everything from maintenance and construction services, to business administration, to energy management.
Facilities Services is one of five non-faculty "job families" in Phase One of the Classification and Market Study at the University, which was completed early last month. The study better defined job titles and developed a salary range that reflects similar jobs in the market.
Janice Simmons, left, and Darlene Hall, right, are two of the 168 custodians at the University. Their efforts keep the university a clean learning environment for all.
BIZ, the study's consultant firm, recommended an annual starting salary for custodians of $22,000, which is below the US Department of Health and Human Service's poverty guideline for a family of four by $1,550. However, the University raised the minimum salary to $24,000, with a maximum of $34,181.37. Applicable pay increases were reflected in workers' paychecks last week.
In addition to a salary, Facilities Services workers receive health, vision and dental insurance through the state, vacation and sick time, nine paid holidays per year, life insurance benefits and access to the gym in Robinson during certain times of day.
Before the Facilities Services merge, Simmons said there were periods of time when staff members' salaries were frozen, or they were locked out of a raise.
Despite the study's effects, Simmons said she feels she should be making more.
"Twenty-two years," she said with a contemplative chuckle.
When Simmons was laid off from Scotch Cleaners, she found her custodial job through a brother who worked at the University. She had two children at the time and the generous health insurance benefits appealed to her.
Simmons has a spunky, motherly—and slightly intimidating—demeanor. Her eyes are gentle, she speaks her mind, but she always cracks a smile or lets loose an amused laugh, never taking herself too seriously.
She lives with one of her daughters and her three grandchildren, and after Simmons' shift ends at 3 p.m. she manages an in-home daycare. Sometimes she has up to 13 kids running around her house on any one afternoon.
The people she visits with and the people she works with everyday are like family to her, too. Her coworker, a young mother of a one-and-a-half year old girl, often asks for Simmons' parenting advice during their shifts together.
Simmons isn't just part of the backbone of the University; she's
"I treat her like she's my daughter," Simmons said, smiling. "I try and keep her on track."
EMMA LEGAULT/KANSAN
the backbone of her family.
"They know mom's a hard worker," she said. "They respect that."
Anybody can clean, but it takes an eye for detail, patience and a good attitude to be a custodian. In the eight years Hall has been a supervisor, she said she's seen who claim they have experience, but lack these key qualities. She appreciates her team's dedication.
“It’s nice working with a group of people that knows their jobs and they don’t have to be babysat,” she said. “I can count on them to get their work done.”
The amount and type of work Facilities Services does is what keeps the University running day to day.
"In a very small way, it's our way of contributing and helping the students become successful," Hall said. "Because if we're not here..."
"The place would be, oh my God," Simmons added. "I couldn't imagine what the place would be if we wasn't here."
Edited by Hannah Barling
SENATE FROM PAGE 2A
"This will make Student Senate more able to serve students," Harger said.
Student Senate also voted 51-1-5 to allocate block fees every year instead of every other year.
"We'll be in much better contact with managers of the student fees," Harger said.
Harger said that allowing student senate to review funds yearly will make it more possible to allocate funds as needs are created or disappear.
STUDENT SENATE ENDORSES
RENTAL SAFETY INSPECTION
EXPANSION
These changes will go into effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 2014.
The Lawrence city commission has been debating and postponing voting on expanding citywide rental licensing programs. The ordinance would require landlords to allow the city to inspect single-family and multiple-family dwellings to make sure buildings are up to city safety codes.
Student Senate has voted 46-2-7 to support an expansion of a city of Lawrence rental registration and licensing program.
"I haven't heard any reservations from students yet but I have heard it from landlords," said Eric Hurt, student senate government relations director and senior from Kansas City, Mo. "We have to remember that landlords are in it for the money."
inspectors would check if doors fit right, windows are cracked, there are enough smoke detectors and other safety code violations.
Inspectors would not be searching for illegal activity and would not have authority to further search dwellings for illegal items.
An inspector must first arrange a mutually convenient time and get consent from the tenant before coming into the home. If declined, the inspector can pick someone else in the complex or, in extreme cases, apply for a warrant. In the event that an inspector needed a search warrant, the tenant would be notified of expected inspection time.
Student Senate passed a bill 57-0-0 to create a University policy to relieve students who are called to temporary military duty to make up class work.
"The whole intention of this program is to inspect these units to make sure the students are living in healthy environments," Hurtt said.
STUDENTS TO BE ALLOWED TO MAKE UP SCHOOLWORK WHEN CALLED TO TEMPORARY DUTY
Temporary orders are for shortterm assignments, usually two to three weeks long, that can be for training exercises or during a crisis. This bill will allow these students to make up finals, exams and quizzes after serving.
Hurtt believes that increasing inspection is in the best interest of students' safety.
Article 1, Section 3 of the University Senate Rules and Regulations says students with verifiable medical crisis of a relative or friend may be excused from a final examination and Article 1, Section 4 says those students may be excused from scheduled examinations and tests.
Last fall, the senate authors said,
a University student was called to
serve in Hurricane Sandy disaster relief with the National Guard. She wasn't allowed to make up a midterm exam that she had missed because, the authors said, an exception to the no make-up policy would not be made.
This bill will allow students in the Reserve Components of the United States Armed Forces or National Guard called on temporary orders to work with faculty to make up finals, exams and quizzes.
KU VS. MU PHILANTHROPIC INTRAMURAL COMPETITION
Student body president Marcus Tetwiler is creating a new opportunity to defeat the University of Missouri.
Tetwiler, a senior from Paola, has been in contact with the University of Missouri student body president to create an annual intramural competition.
The event would include a week of percentage nights at local businesses in Lawrence and Columbia, Mo., and end in a weekend tournament between the universities' intramural teams. The winning state would choose a local philanthropy to give the combined donations.
"The rivalry between KU and Missouri is not something we should let go," Tetwiler said. "That spirit is something we should use for philanthropic purposes."
Tetwiler said a coin flip could decide if the first round would be held in Lawrence or Columbia, Mo. Following years would rotate between home courts. Student senate will form a special committee to organize this event.
Edited by Jessica Mitchell
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