FY2010 Budget Reductions and their Impact on Academic Custodial Services

Bill

We all can appreciate costs reductions that need to be made but one of the principles involved with Bruce's cost reductions was the caveat not to transfer costs.    By not supplying trash bags each department will now start buying their own (cost) and they will not use the biodegradeable ones that were obtained in bulk purchases. (Environmental issues) In addition to increasing costs for the department who now will need to purchase their own trash can liners there is no way to ensure that we are obtaining ones that met a "green" standard. 

I am curious as to who will pay for the increased pest management services that might need to be done? 

Susan

Susan

I think the best why to reply is by further explaining the intent.    The intent is office waste cans should not include food waste or other waste that will decompose, stink or attract pests.  These should be taken to central waste stations which will be picked up daily.   With only basic non-recycable office waste the need for office waste can bags and their replacement is eliminated.    We have been doing this on a test basis at the Physical Plant for over one year and have not seen any significant issues or numerous requests for bag replacement.     

Bottom line this is not intended to transfer any costs to other departments, simply eliminate a service with direct costs in line with sustainable goals.   That said we cannot control what the departments on campus do.   

FYI - The next step for future changes with office waste is to further encourage recycling by switching to mini-cans for landfill waste.    This was not done at this time simply due to costs to replace the existing office waste cans with the new small office mini-cans.

Hope this helps the understanding on our solution to challenging reductions.   In the same breath, we also are the first to admit that the cleaning services possible within the funding available are inadequate.   Are web updates have numerous metrics on  cleanilness within the academic buildings.    

I don't mind emptying my office wastebasket somewhere else relatively convenient (same building, same floor, same wing) on a daily basis, but I agree that individual offices will purchase trash can bags at what will end up being more expensive for the university overall.  Or people won't use bags at all and the trash cans will become bio-hazzards. 
However, I have worked at Western for nearly 18 years and the custodial services have mostly been minimal that whole time.  Why on earth don't we hire work-study students (or other paid students) to help with this work? The custodial staff always complains about being understaffed and the buildings show a lack of pride in that they aren't kept clean.  Big "dust bunnies" are often in stairwells and corners, spots and dirt are on most carpets which, in my experience, are only vacuumed upon special request let alone shampooed.   And we won't even talk about dirty windows and dust.  It's embarrassing, especially when the public visits. 
I think a student cleaning work force would be extremely helpful in assisting our regular custodial staff and the level of cleanliness and sharp appearance would vastly improve.
Thanks for asking for input.

I am afraid I have to agree, the minimal care given to the buildings overall is sad and apparently will become even worse.  Emptying our own trash will be the latest in cutbacks.  Dustbunnies in the classrooms, dirty floors, no real cleaning unless it is done by the folks working in the classrooms.  I didn't realize when I hired on how much of my job would be simply keeping spaces cleaned up.  So, what happens now.

I agree that dust bunnies are unsightly and disagreeable, but food waste seems to me to be the more serious issue. I have not deposited organic waste in my office basket for some years, since the pickup was already too infrequent for that to be desirable.  I would hope that faculty and staff can make the small effort to carry discards a short distance, just as we already carry recyclables. So I hope that departments/offices will refrain from buying their own bin liners.

But what is much more problematic is this--my building (Bond Hall) is inhabited at virtually all hours by students engaged in a great variety of activities. Many of these students carry in food and drink, and leave behind their debris. Without daily pickups from classrooms, hallways, labs, and any other spaces to which they can penetrate, the odor will quickly become obvious and the insects (if not worse) will soon follow.  The effect of custodial reductions on these spaces is not covered in your memo. I hope that you have a plan to keep the health inspectors at bay.

Let me go through some of the comments above.

Hiring Students - Great idea, but we are already doing this.   We currently have 21 students working 27 weeks per year.   This basically does not include finals weeks, breaks or summers.   They work on the "push" between 5:00 am and 8:00 am to clean all classrooms prior to the start of classes.  This has been a great help and has improved cleanilness.   The annual budget for student custodial aides is just over $76,000.

Campus Cleanliness - We can only agree that the overall cleanliness of campus in not what it should be.   This is directly related to funding and resultant staffing.   Funding has clearly not kept pace with campus growth.    We have strived to provide the best service possilbe within funding available.   To minimize the impacts of lack of funding and staffing we moved into team cleaning over the last ten years.   This assigns cleaning specialist to concentrate on one task through their shift making the tasks more efficient.     This has helped keep cleanliness on campus from further decline due to funding increases historically not keeping pace with our growing campus.     Check out the ACS Metrics and Benchmarking at http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fm/Services/Operations/Custodial.html for a more complete information on the history of staffing and Western's cleanliness.     That said we do prioritize our cleaning services.   Restroom/locker rooms are the highest, classroom/lab/public areas middle and office lowest priority.     Currently reduction mostly impact offices with little or change in services on other spaces.   

Concerns over Classroom Reductions - There will be no decrease in custodial services to classrooms, labs or public areas.     See the link http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fm/Services/Operations/pdf/Custodial/State%20Funded%20Routine%20Cleaning%20Services%2020090728.pdf  for the "State Funded Routine Cleaning Services"  provided for a complete detailed task list of cleaning services.   This list includes where detailed changes have been been by the up coming reduction taking effect 9-1-09.

 Thank you custodians for doing the best job you can with the tools provided.  We appreciate your hard work.  I guess now it is time to get busy emptying our own garbage cans. 

Great posts on increased use of student workers--how many current student worker are work-study, funded by non-WWU $ ?  In the experience of my department, students are reluctant to take work-study positions where they have to actually WORK.  We have had students decline positions or leave us because they wanted a work study job where they could study and get paid--answering phones, staffing reception desks, etc.  Same mentality that keep them from taking jobs they consider 'menial' in the private sector.  The on-campus student jobs should be staffed by Federal work-study.

Also good posts on cost shifting to departments regarding trash can liners.

On another note, if Custodial Services is so short on cash, why is it that my building just got fancy NEW trash can covers for each floor?  They are just cosmetic covers--they add NOTHING to the functionality of the receptacle.  How much did these cost, each?  If CS can afford these fancy covers, can't they afford the extra 0.5 hours per week it takes to empty our office trash?

Finally, I have to say that the custodians in my building don't work that hard or that efficiently. They remind me of Postal workers, who are never in a hurry,  since they get paid the same amount for their hours whether they serve 2 customers at the counter or 200 customers. Custodians get paid the same for the hours whether they sweep/vacuum 1 room or 100 rooms, and without regard to whether they do the job half-a**ed.  How about some more accountability?

Thanks for your comments.  Let me walk through them.

Student Custodial Aides - We have funding for 21 students 3 hours per day 5 days per week for 27 weeks per year.    They work the "push shift" from 5:00 am to 8:00 am to help us push to clean all classrooms before the typical start of school each day.   The 27 weeks lets them off around finals, all breaks and summer.    We have found the majority of our students to be excellent workers that know how to work.    Some of these students work out well enough we hire them as full time temp employees during breaks and summers.  Like any other large organization we have had problems with some.  Those are simply let go.   The main reoccurring problem is attendance.  When they do not show up others must carry the load.  We understand that the pressures the students are under so we keep + - 25 students on the hired roll to give flexibility on meeting the 21 min needed.    To fund this we utilized new custodial staffing funds when the Communications Facility came on line and hire students instead of full time employees to maximize the "push shift".    We have not explored Federal work-study, yet.   Thanks for the suggestion.

The one time cost of the landfill containers compared with the annual loss of 3 full time custodians placed the containers at a pay back of around 3 months or a delay of savings of 3 months.   This was good business and was coordinated with sustainable goals.   Other reductions would have impacted classroom/labs or public space services and would have been a larger impact on the teaching mission.   

Accountability - While we can all do better here is what we do.  We perform monthly random inspections which verify levels of cleanliness being achieved.    This redirects tasks and associated training needs.  We have an excellent training program which you can read about on our web site.   This then provides input to annual performance evaluations.     The single biggest improvement to accountability has been team cleaning.  Working more often in a groups provides more pier pressure for each to do their part.    

Thanks for your comments.