Ohio University is now hiring part-time custodial staff in order to supplement COVID-19 cleaning efforts on campus.
The university is trying to fill a shortage of custodial staff, which was created last summer by a round of layoffs that left over 200 former employees without jobs.
“They put out a posting for jobs and are trying to find people to work 16 hours until the end of May to help cover because there is a shortage of workers,” John Ackison, president of the AFSCME Local 1699, the Ohio University Facilities Union, said.
The university brought back custodial staff members who they had laid off to various positions on campus, mostly to clean the quarantine dorms.
“After the layoffs, they called around roughly 90 people back to varied positions and varied days to cover (quarantine dorms),” Ackison said.
All of the residence halls on campus are cleaned the same, regardless of the level of COVID-19 in the dorm. Residence hall restrooms specifically are cleaned twice a day, every day of the week.
“Our staff is cleaning residence halls, and all buildings, based on the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of COVID-19, regardless of the level of COVID-19 found at a given time,” Steve Mack, interim executive director of facilities management at OU, said in an email.
Quarantine and isolation halls are cleaned as needed based on use as well.
In addition to custodial staff, the maintenance staff has been working this semester to fulfill work orders that have been placed by students in the dorms using a three-tiered work order priority system.
“Ohio University Facilities Management uses a three-tiered work order priority system. ‘Immediate’ orders must be responded to within 24 hours, ‘Urgent’ orders within 72 hours, and ‘Routine’ within 45 days,” Steve Wood, chief facilities management officer at OU, said in an email.
These work orders are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, and there are still outstanding work orders.
“At any given time, Facilities Management has approximately 1,000 outstanding work orders awaiting completion, an average that has held for the past couple of years,” Wood said in an email.
Sophie Sova, a freshman studying early education, had the light above her mirror fall down that exposed wires and got it fixed that same day.
“I put the work order in around 8, and they came around 10, so it was within a few hours. I think it might have had to do with the fact that there were exposed wires,” Sova said. “They came in like a few hours, like one to two hours, and it only took them like five to 10 minutes.”
