The Syracuse University dormitory janitors are about the only people that know exactly what the students do on nights and weekends – if only because it’s often, literally, painted right on the walls.

College janitors have a much more important job than one might care to think about. Their profession requires them to clean the messes which are left behind by everyone else. Each janitor is assigned two floors, which it is their job to keep sanitized. Beside scrubbing away post-party-vomit on the floors (and sometimes walls and ceilings), janitors take care of the bathrooms, stairwells, lounges, elevators tracks, garbage rooms, kitchenettes and recycling rooms. All of those places need to be properly emptied, equipped, swept and mopped, as well as vacuumed daily.

Janitors work every day, including weekends and holidays, so germs will not override the halls and sickness won’t run rampant in an already extremely disease-infested zone. Their job is a tireless and often thankless one, but one which needs to be done all the same.

‘I have no idea if the people of Syracuse appreciate me,’ said Burrell Jardin, a Flint Hall janitor. ‘I want to say that my floors do, and the rest of them I can’t say, but pretty much all the students know me. I treat them the way I would want to be treated, down to earth and with respect.’

Jardin has worked as a janitor at SU for many years, first cleaning up for food service after the meals and then progressing into dormitory work, and he says he enjoys every moment of it. Contrary to the popular belief that no one could enjoy this line of work, many janitors do enjoy their jobs as well as the ability to interact with the students, Jardin said.

‘Some of them seem like they enjoy their work; some of them seem like they absolutely hate it,’ said Brettanie Hart Saxton, a sophomore history major. ‘It’s probably just like every job.’

While many janitors see their position as just employment, others consider it a way to make some money while training for something grander. Sharon Kessler, another Flint Hall janitor, is currently taking management classes at SU to try and become a supervisor, and possibly, a director of a program. While she does enjoy her job, she’s using the time and facilities at SU to move up in the world.

‘Being a janitor is often a stepping stone to do something bigger and better in the university, and maybe in the outside world,’ said Kathleen Farrell, the department manager of housekeeping for the Housing and Food Services Maintenance Zone (HFSMZ).

Students at SU have consistently seemed to feel that janitors are doing good work to keep their place clean. The end-of-the-year evaluations of the cleaning services come out predominantly positive, and the few complaints seem to be over minute details. Yet, this may be only because students take the good work, and people doing it, for granted. Hart Saxton talked to a specific janitor almost daily last year, conversing about things ranging from her classes to the weather, yet she never actually knew his name.

‘Whenever I heard (the janitors) talking to each other, they never talked about anything else except janitor stuff,’ said Ryan Varney, a sophomore political science major. ‘It made them seem like they were really involved with their jobs, which kind of may be pathetic, because they are cleaning up after students.’

The only time students seem to truly value the janitors is when they’ve done something they can’t, or won’t, fix themselves. The maintenance department realizes this fact and works to make the best possible outcomes of sticky situations.

There are three different crews which come in to handle the messes. The first squad begins at 7 a.m. and does the normal cleaning which students are accustomed to until 3:30 p.m. There are two other crews, one from 3:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., and another which finishes the rest of the night, that are equally ready to respond to any problems students may have. All the buildings are covered 24 hours a day, but the second and third shifts are mostly present to respond to emergencies, Farrell said.

When students do call for service, the janitors are sent off to take care of the problem, and most of the time it will be dealt with immediately. From projectile vomit all across the bathroom floor to unidentifiable stains near the toilets, the SU janitors will take care of anything and everything which the students have trouble with.

‘Once, when I first started this semester, I found a vibrator in the women’s shower,’ Jardin said. ‘Did it offend me? No, not really, but it sure shocked me.’

No matter what happens, janitors are trained to be and friendly, courteous, and above all, honorable. Not only do they have to do good work, but before being hired, janitors are thoroughly examined for any sort of dishonest flaws, said Farrell.

‘They have to be very trustworthy, because they are working in the students’ home,’ said Farrell. ‘If I bring a person into my home, I want to be able to trust them completely, and it’s the same for the student’s housing.’

The janitors of SU have tried to uphold the tradition of being worthwhile people for generations. J.D. Tessier, the director of HFSMZ, still remembers the maintenance people who worked in his dorms when he was a student at SU in the ’70s. The janitors were friendly to all the students, and so they made good friendships with the people who lived on the floor as well as creating lasting memories, Tessier said.

‘We try to promote all the janitors to create relationships with the residence hall floor members; this creates a happier place, it creates a cleaner place and just a better place to live,’ Tessier said. ‘They interact with the students and treat them with respect, and in turn the kids treat the floor better and they treat the building better. It’s a cycle of all good stuff.’

With all the work that is going on behind the scenes to keep SU looking spic and span, it may be worthwhile to stop and pick up the thrown trash which happened to miss the garbage can … or if it’s too much work to bend over, one could at least aim more for the center of the bowl next Friday night.

‘Sometime, we make a big mess, and (the janitors) are courteous to us, so we should be courteous to them and help keep the place clean,’ said Yik Fong, a freshman accounting major. ‘It’s our place too, and it shouldn’t be their sole responsibility to clean up our mess. I know they are hired to do just that, but we also need to be responsible since we’re all adults now.’

Published on April 11, 2005 at 12:00 pm