It’s 8 a.m. and for the next nine hours Hana Palmer will clean carpets and bathroom floors in the Schine Student Center. She’ll also wax windows and take out the trash in Bird Library.

While the rest of campus sleeps, Palmer and an invisible army of housekeeping and maintenance personnel work around the clock keeping the facilities and services of Syracuse University running for the campus community.

‘Some work here to be able to go to college, others work here so their kids can go to college – and some have been here 30 years,’ said Ron De Francis, housekeeping coach for Haven, Kimmel, Marion and Watson residence halls.

Dedicated to serving students’ needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the primary job functions for the staff include daily maintenance, project planning, administration and the repair and replacement of equipment and furnishings.

‘Some of the staff have been working here longer than I’ve been alive,’ said Cheryl Hughes, supervisor of housekeeping and FIXit on South Campus. ‘In a sense, we’re a big family.’

Through their collective efforts, housekeeping staff provide a clean, secure and comfortable ‘home away from home’ for a resident population of approximately 7,200 single students and 100 families residing in 18 residence halls and more than 1,000 apartments.

The staff is comprised of 82 housekeepers and six supervising staffers. The first shift begins at 7 a.m., which does the normal cleaning until 3:30 p.m.

‘Six people clean Brewster Boland everyday, which is a huge building and a huge responsibility,’ said Kathleen Farrell, department manager of housekeeping for the Housing and Food Services Maintenance Zone.

There are two other shifts, one from 3:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., and another which finishes the rest of the night. The second and third shifts primarily respond to emergencies, Farrell said.

‘I think most students appreciate our staff,’ De Francis said. ‘Of course there’s always some who don’t – who leave a mess and make our job more difficult.’

Palmer said sometimes students do thank her for her work.

‘That’s nice to hear, especially when it gets busy during the day and I’m running from one end of the building to the other,’ she said.

Some students, however, seem to believe the dorms clean themselves. When asked about the housekeeping staff, several students said they barely knew they were there.

Charles Mayaka, a junior aerospace engineering and physics major, said sometimes students have an ‘it’s their job’ mentality.

‘We never dry the sinks when we use them, sometimes we do not flush the toilets and sometimes we throw paper towels into the sinks,’ he said. ‘I have issues with my fellow students who don’t make an effort to maintain the standards of cleanliness after the housekeeping staff have completed their stellar work.’

Though students may not outwardly express thanks, they probably appreciate the housekeeping staff’s work, Farrell said.

‘It is courteous to say hi to them and collectively make contributions towards appreciating the housekeeping staff,’ Mayaka said.

When students hit the beaches of Acapulco, Mexico for Spring Break, the staff continues to work. While much of this time may be spent working in public areas, they still respond to work requests they’ve received for students’ rooms. At a student’s request, staff members may also return during a break to complete work that otherwise may cause an inconvenience.

The Cleaning for Health program helps meet the needs of a diverse group of staff members, by implementing a form of training that would be understood by all, regardless of their English level.

The Cleaning for Health Instructional Video Team created a videotape to standardize the sanitizing process throughout the department, which won an Exemplary Achievement Award for Improving Processes from the chancellor in 2003.

Using the department’s diversity as a way to unify the group, this team also established an improved way to provide excellent service.

‘The most important thing is student health and safety – we train the staff about the value of disinfecting bathroom floors so students don’t get athletes foot,’ Farrell said. ‘I’d rather see a cobweb hanging on the wall than a dirty bathroom floor.’

The housekeeping staff are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the local union that represents service and maintenance workers, providing union members a strong voice in determining their wages, benefits and working conditions.

Staff members work all summer to prepare residence halls and apartments for fall semester students and summer guests. After residents leave in May, crews assess room and building conditions, prioritize works that needs to be done, and complete all repairs during the summer work schedule.

‘We prioritize everyday,’ Farrell said.

During the summer months they concentrate on major maintenance projects that can’t be done while the building is occupied. Such tasks include replacing mechanical systems, renovating space, replacing carpet and painting.

Farrell emphasized the importance of housekeeping staff.

‘The university is only as good as its people,’ she said. ‘And its people are the ones who keep the buildings clean everyday.’

Published on March 5, 2007 at 12:00 pm