Rosario Fauver, seven custodians oversee more than 20 buildings

It’s not the cleaning fairies who pick up the scraps of trash on campus after hours, it’s the often forgotten-about custodial staff.

Custodial Supervisor Rosario Fauver and seven staff members are in charge of cleaning all of campus and four other buildings off campus. The staff works Monday through Friday, usually starting their shifts at 4 p.m. to clean 20 buildings.

“Anything that is touched is cleaned by a custodian,” Fauver says. This includes mirrors, floors, light fixtures, internal and external features and even the 10-foot area around the outside of each UCC building. “There is a lot of scheduling. Everything has deadlines, so we have to meet a lot of deadlines. Different deadlines you have to hit and meet, and different steps have to take place in order for those things to happen,” Fauver says.

Fauver explains that not only does a good organization keep the custodial department on track, but also great teamwork. “A lot of teamwork, a LOT of teamwork. I like doubling people up in buildings. More eyes, more hands, more gets accomplished on a nightly basis,” Fauver says. The best way Fauver has found to get the job done as soon and as efficiently as possible is to use teamwork and add more hands when more tasks have been added. “I may have two people go in, and they’re cleaning the building, and if I have a floor project that comes in, I’ll have two other people that will jump in behind and do the carpet cleaning while the rest of the building is getting cleaned by the other two. So, then those four will move into the next building and work together and separate if need be.”

Extra events that may be happening on campus never fall off their radar. On Dec. 2 a sports game is being held at the gym. “We have a game coming up this Friday night. So, everything is already preset on ‘Okay, you’ll be in charge of this’ (and) ‘You’re going to be in charge of that.’ From cleaning backboards to making sure the gym is swept underneath the bleachers, the facility must be ready to go. The gym floor is scrubbed, the locker room is prepped and ready to go. Visiting bathrooms for the public (are cleaned).”

When custodians finish a building and move to the next one, sometimes the public comes in after them and leaves small messes. This can be discouraging, the custodians have noted. Although custodians are frequently under-appreciated, Fauver notices who carefully consider how the UCC environment looks.

“It’s moments where we are walking through campus and we’re heading to a building or we’re coming on campus for the night, and we see students stop and just pick up that piece of trash that’s in the middle of campus, or they’ll see something that got spilled (and wipe it up),” Fauver explains; “’times, I’ll walk into bathrooms and see somebody is in there, wiping down the counter so there’s not water everywhere. It’s little moments like that to the custodial staff that really have an impact on them, to see that someone else is trying to make sure it’s not a huge mess every night.”

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