UNIVERSITY

June 4, 2004

TO: All Faculty and Staff

FROM: Scott Beebe

This is to notify you that beginning on July 1st, the University will be altering its cleaning practices in University buildings. This is a necessary step in order to work within available staffing resources and to accommodate sick leave and vacation hours. This proposal was developed by Debbie Weinerth, Custodial Supervisor, and a team of custodians. This proposal was then presented to the executive staff, including the Dean’s and VP’s, and accepted. Our intention is not to reduce the quality or level of building cleanliness and appearance. Rather, our goal is to manage our existing resources in a more efficient way and to allow us to focus on cleaning the high visibility, high traffic areas of our buildings. In order to monitor the results of this program, the Physical Plant will conduct a survey of building occupants to understand their views and perceptions of custodial care.

When the 80,000 square foot Elrod Commons opened in August, 2003, the University did not increase the number of custodians to clean the Commons. Rather, it re-assigned three custodians from other buildings to avoid the creation and cost of additional positions. This was a good decision in terms of maintaining a constant level of staffing in the Physical Plant, and it has forced us to become more efficient. However, it has also placed certain operational pressures on the custodial staff by seriously reducing the flexibility they had to use custodians to fill in for colleagues who were on vacation or sick leave. The result is that we are now recommending a plan to change cleaning patterns to accommodate vacation and sick leave hours.

Importantly, the current custodial staff has accumulated a total of 159 weeks of vacation, or 6,360 hours. This is equivalent to three full-time positions (at 2,080 hours per year). Moreover, the University has to cover sick time and workers compensation leaves, which may equal another full-time position. Accordingly, the University needs to cover the work of four full-time custodians during the course of a year.

The custodial staff totals 50 employees including 2 supervisors, 5 lead custodians, and 43 line staff. With the addition of the Commons, our custodial staff maintains an average of 33,325 square feet in comparison to an average of 31,008 square feet based on a 2001-02 APPA survey that included 9 peer schools (Richmond, Furman, Williams, Union, Puget Sound, Gettysburg College, Dickinson, William and Mary, and Colorado College). The schools are considered "peers" because they are generally similar in quality, size, and composition of facilities.

The proposal to accommodate this operational issue, without adding more staff, is to create a flexible team of custodians who can fill in for their colleagues while they are on vacation or sick leave. In order to create this flexible team, there will need to be a change in how we clean our buildings.

A committee composed of five custodians and chaired by Debbie Weinerth proposed the creation of cleaning zones within buildings and assigning priority levels to these zones. Priority 1 zones would be cleaned on a more frequent and intensive basis and would include building entrances, bathrooms, and classrooms. These are generally high-use, high-visibility spaces. Priority 2 zones would be spaces that are used less intensively and are not as visible to the public. These spaces would include offices, stairways, and employee or student lounge areas. The Priority 2 zones would be cleaned on a less frequent basis, specifically on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday basis rather than daily. We do not believe this will seriously affect the appearance or quality of our interior spaces. However, office occupants may have to pay a bit more attention to what they throw away in their office trash versus what they throw out in more central trash receptacles. For instance, food may need to be thrown out in central receptacles to avoid unpleasant odors over a two-day period.

In the Greek System, entrances, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, and stairways would be cleaned on a daily basis. Basement and party rooms would be cleaned twice per week.

With respect to recycling, the original model was that staff would bring their recycling to a central point to be collected by custodians. The current practice is that recycling is picked up in each individual office on a daily basis. We will be returning to picking up recycling in a central location. Enforce the "no food, no drink" policy in designated areas. The enforcement of this practice has slipped so that students, faculty, and staff will bring food and drink to areas not intended to accommodate food and drink. This has not only caused an additional burden on custodial staff, but it often results in soiling or staining carpeting, furniture, and spoiling high visibility areas. We will ask for greater cooperation in this area.

This plan is a significant change for Physical Plant custodians who take a great deal of pride in the appearance of their buildings. They will be asked to reduce their efforts in a particular building so that they can generally cover more space and to concentrate on high-visibility areas more intensively. In terms of the building occupants, th ere should be a minimal amount of change. Please contact me, Randolph Hare, or Debbie Weinerth with any concerns or questions. Thank you for your cooperation.