Appreciating what our cleaning and maintenance crews do

Appreciating what our cleaning and maintenance crews do

by Emili JohnsonStaff Writer

One of the greatest things about living in Picken Hall, if not in any other residence hall, is having a friendly cleaning crew. These people come to campus every day at 8:30 a.m. to clean up our messes.

Now, I am the type of person who smiles and says “hello,” especially with the people who work in my residence hall. Everyone knows that once you start to say “hi,” then the more you see that person, you will want to talk to them to see how their day is going and just have a nice conversation. The next thing I know, I am having an ongoing conversation and learning what someone else is all about.

There is one lady in particular I wanted to talk to about her job and what she does at Simpson. Her name is Lisa Yazell and she has been working here at the college for more than seven years.

“I’ve been in Barker, Kresge, and Buxton, two of the frats, but mostly in Picken.” Yazell says.

She says that the whole time she has been at Simpson, she has never received a bad complaint from anyone. To be honest, I don’t know why she would in the first place.

Of course, there are a few things that students could be doing to make her job easier. For example, not filling the trash cans all the way to the top and then putting the rest of the trash on the ground next to the trash can could help. Or, actually throwing the paper towel into the trash can instead of on the floor and leaving it there. (Come on people, these are little things that we should be doing without someone telling us to.) But she did have one revelation that surprised me.

“I would have to say that I’d rather clean-up after boys than girls,” Yazell said. “Girls have a lot of hair!”

She also let me know about the happenings in Kresge Hall a few weekends ago. Apparently, a few students broke the showerheads on the third floor of the dormitory. And the fun doesn’t stop there because some students even defecated in the shower stall on the second floor of the building.

I hear stuff like this and I think about how little appreciation these students have for the people who clean up after us every day. It really makes me angry, and I really hope they find the kids who did that and make them apologize formally to the person they disrespected.

Other than that, my conversation with Lisa was wonderful because I think it was a realization that I had already known about how we are all the same no matter what job, status, sex, etc. we hold in this lifetime.

I think that, as students, we should take the time and talk to the people who make our campus look as great as it does, and we should show our appreciation for them and what they do. I feel that would bring this campus together like it should be. We are a community here at Simpson; students, faculty and staff, and we should greatly appreciate what our campus cleaning and maintenance crews do for us.