Saeed Husain
Staff Writer
Students residing in program houses this semester at The College of Wooster arrived to the announcement that they will no longer receive the cleaning services provided by custodial staff in the past.
The decision by the College has irked some students, who feel that they weren’t told of the change enough in advance.
“No one’s come in, and we just heard from friends that they weren’t cleaning anymore,” said Harriet Sudduth ’20. “If they’re not going to provide those services, I just want them to be more communicative about it.”
“We literally only found out the first day we were back on campus,” Simon Weyer ’19 said.
However, when asked how the decision was communicated to them, Nathan Fein, director of residence life at the College, said that students had been informed in the agreements they signed to live in a house.
“We asked all students who applied for a house to complete the House Roster, Grade/Judicial Release and Agreement form. Students were accepting the terms of living in a house,” he said. “Part of those terms was being responsible for cleaning individual and common spaces within the house. The terms can be found on our website and have been available since the beginning of the application process in January 2017.”
As for cleaning after themselves, he said that this did not represent an unreasonable change from previous years.
“Students were already responsible for common spaces and kitchens, with bathrooms being cleaned once a week by custodial. Now these students are also responsible for cleaning their bathrooms as well.”
Regarding the reason for the change, Doug Laditka, associate vice president for facilities management and development, said that it was a result of cost-saving measures in previous years.
“A few years ago, the College worked through a sustainable budget initiative. As part of the process, the administration approved the reduction of several custodial positions through attrition.”
He said the reduction in custodial service was not the result of layoffs; but solely of service changes.
“There were no layoffs, positions were just not filled when they became vacant. Two primary service changes were identified that allowed this to happen — the elimination of cleaning residential small houses and reduction in frequency of office cleaning.”
This planned gradual reduction took several years to follow up on, Laditka added.
“The custodial services in the houses was reduced from daily restroom cleaning and trash removal to once per week last year and no service this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, some students had concerns about not knowing where to get cleaning supplies, now that they were required to get them on their own.
“I just want to know where to get my toilet paper,” Grace O’Leary ’20 said.
According to Fein, students can get access to cleaning supplies from the College.
“We have worked with Facilities to get students access to cleaning supplies at no additional cost by going to the Service Center storeroom,” he said.
Ladtika added that the custodial team is also ready to help train students on how to clean.
“Cleaning supplies and paper products are available at the Service Center for student use and our custodial team is happy to provide any training students might need on safe and effective cleaning,” he said.