Building services team in Aderhold Hall

Each of the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s buildings has a dedicated custodial team that starts its day before many of us arrive. During COVID, building services staff no longer entered individual offices for everyone’s safety and because their scope of work changed. They were responsible for cleaning classrooms and common spaces more thoroughly and more often. This change is still in effect. Below is guidance regarding trash, offices, and classrooms.

• Trash: Everyone is responsible for taking their own trash to receptacles that are located throughout the hallways (this is parallel to how paper recycling is handled). If you are unable to take your trash out yourself, you can leave your trash can outside your door, and it will be emptied and then placed back inside your door to avoid crowding the hallways and for a neater look. You are welcome to put your trash can in the hallway whenever it needs to be emptied; there is not a set schedule for this. Some building services workers are still entering offices to empty trash cans daily, weekly, or monthly, but know that this is not part of their scope of work anymore.
• Vacuuming: The scope of work is for carpet to be vacuumed once a week. Office managers/department heads need to work with the building services staff member on their floor to create a consistent schedule that considers any unique needs of the unit, such as not running a vacuum near a clinic while clients are being served. Office managers/department heads can also work with the building services staff member on their floor to create a “signal,” such as a sticky note on the door, to identify a space that needs to be vacuumed.
• Classrooms: People have raised concerns about classrooms with sticky tables, floors with crumbs or trash, and full trash cans. The building services staff requests that food and drink containers be thrown away outside of the classroom to minimize critters. If there is a large event, such as a pizza party, let the custodians know and they will provide a large red trash can for all waste—at the end of the event, tie the top and roll the can into the hallway. This will contain all food waste in one place and allow custodians to make one trip to the outside bins. Please do not stack pizza boxes on top of recycle/trash bins as this then makes those bins inaccessible to others and requires multiple trips for custodians to dispose of them. With advanced notice, the custodians can also provide a rag and spray bottle for participants to clean up any spills or messes on tables.