I just attended an interesting talk about custodial/facilities management on West Campus. When I read the description of the talk, I was actually quite amazed to learn that there are 2000+ rooms on West Campus. I was even more amazed to learn that facilities only have about 30 full time staff (hopefully I didn’t hear this wrong!).
In any case, Anthony seemed like such a genuinely nice person! He explained the ins and outs of managing building care on West Campus, as well as received our feedback and gave us some anecdotes. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the custodial staff at Cornell, because it can’t be easy having to clean up after college students (not just trash and general bathroom messes, but also stuff like… vomit) but I think hearing Anthony speak about his job and the job of his staff gave me some new insight about what all they do and what they are responsible for. I thought it was interesting that Anthony described us (the students!) as essentially, “the customers”–at the end of the day, the goal is for us to have a safe and clean campus life experience. And he also told us to never hesitate submitting a maintenance request! I always feel like I’m bothering them if I submit a maintenance request, but he said that we can submit a request for anything from as small as “the soap needs refilling” to something bigger, like a heat or light issue, etc. In fact, these gets factored in when they next talk about budgeting–so if there is a lot of requests for soap, for example, they might factor in more frequent soap-refill times in the future.
I’ve never had a bad experience with facilities, and I’ve had some pretty bad luck with things breaking during my last 3 years at Cornell (the most dramatic event being that one time, someone literally smashed open my window at 1AM in the morning…), so I am super grateful for the wonderful facilities staff that we have here. I think the talk was interesting and enlightening, and it was actually really great to know the ins and outs of managing West Campus and all the work that goes into it too.
I heard 30 full time staff members and was also amazed. Anthony’s talk reminded me that every single staff member is a person just like me, with a job to provide for himself or herself as well as his or her family at home. With this in mind, I will do everything I can to make their jobs easier and more enjoyable to show my gratitude and respect for them. I will make sure to thank the people who shovel snow the next time I walk by them.