University tries weekend bathroom cleaning in select dormitories

In response to student complaints about weekend maintenance of the University's public bathrooms, building services has begun a month-long trial to explore three different cleaning plans.

General Manager of Plant and Services Mike McKay said the lack of weekend coverage is a "bad situation. I hear that from students, our staff who have to clean up the considerable mess on Mondays and some personal observation."

In an e-mail sent to residents of Rockefeller and Mathey colleges as well as selected upperclass buildings, assistant director for undergraduate housing Lisa DePaul outlined the three separate plans.

To maintain the current maintenance budget and allow for weekend cleaning, building services will have to make certain cutbacks. All three plans will be put into effect on a trial basis from March 27 to April 29.

The trial will "incur some extra costs for overtime," McKay said. "The costs to do this for a one-month period are something we can absorb in our budget."

In the long term, however, the plans would likely not add to the budget, he said. "They may not necessarily incur extra costs in the future," McKay said. In a steady state, [building services] could divert manpower."

The e-mail said the first plan calls for bathroom cleaning Saturday while ceasing coverage Wednesday. "The goal here is to never have two consecutive days when restrooms are not serviced," the e-mail said. Despite the elimination of full bathroom coverage on Wednesday, trash will still be collected.

Weekends

The second plan adds minimal coverage on the weekends. Though they would not be complete cleanings, the e-mail said the team of weekend staffers would "remove trash, stock supplies and clean the worst areas and bathrooms within their buildings."

The final plan provides full weekend bathroom coverage. However, to account for this increase in expenditures, building services will stagger trash collection during the week, only providing these services Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The e-mail said trash collection is a labor-intensive process that is unnecessary to do daily, because "it is rare that student trash and recycling cans are ever more than marginally full."

McKay said he does not think any of the plans will be perfect. "I'm sure all of them will have its own set of problems and benefits," he said. "We'll have to look at them in the end."