Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News

Tom Goddard, a starter building service worker, breaks down a box while cleaning classrooms in the Doudna Fine Arts Center on Tuesday night. (Erin Matheny/The Daily Eastern News)

While the opening of the Doudna Fine Arts Center may please most on campus, it poses a challenge for Eastern's building service workers.

Eastern hired four new BSWs this year to help maintain the campus with the addition of Doudna, but the overall total still does not equal the amount of BSWs Eastern had before Gov. Rod Blagojevich cut the university's state appropriations for fiscal year 2003.

"The increase we had serves a purpose in Doudna, but we are still understaffed from the level we were prior to the budget cuts," said Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs.

With four new BSWs hired, Eastern has a total of 52 full-time BSWs maintaining the campus; however, Eastern has added an additional 180,000 square feet to its campus with the opening of Doudna.

John Sigler, associate director of support services, said the issue with Doudna and maintaining the campus with added square feet has resolved itself better than he originally anticipated.

He said hiring the four new BSWs was almost an imperative move to make because when Doudna was being designed, it was recommended that 10 or 12 people were needed to clean it.

Eight BSWs will actually clean Doudna.

The hiring of the BSWs came after facilities planning and management's operating budget was increased.

Cooley said the university recognized the need for more BSWs and made it one of Eastern's funding priorities for fiscal year 2009.

"We would always like to do more," Cooley said of adding more BSWs.

He added the university has a need to provide instruction to students and understands funding academic programs comes before trying to fund administrative support areas like facilities, planning and management.

Sigler said Eastern will implement a new team cleaning concept this year to help make cleaning Doudna and the campus more efficient in response to Doudna opening with a small BSW staff.

"We have done something here we have never done in the past," he said. "We have a team dedicated to a building."

Sigler said the concept allows each individual worker to complete a specific task, such as sweeping the floor, within a certain amount of square footage during a scheduled period.

For example, five BSWs will clean Doudna during the day and three will clean during the night, all performing specific tasks, he added.

Building Services supervisor Travis Magee and other supervisors spent time trying to figure out how they can breakdown campus and reassign BSWs to keep the university clean and maintained.

"This fall will be the true test," Magee said of the team-cleaning concept. "It's going to take some tweaking. It's not perfect right now. Hopefully, we'll work it out."

Magee said the demand of service might be delayed compared to previous years.

"Nobody is getting neglected," he said. "They might not get the service they used to."

In the past, customers were accustomed to putting in a service request and having the problem be solved right away, Magee said.

Now, customers will have to call the facilities department. The service request will be filed and then the BSW will take care of the problem, he added.

"The service isn't going to lag, but they are not going to get the demand in service," Magee said.

He added the time to address a service request should not be that long, but it depends on the workload of the BSWs.

Sigler and Magee will have a better idea of how well the team-cleaning concept is working after two or three weeks of school.

"If you come over someday, and you see us over here (Doudna) mopping, you are going to know things went south," Sigler said laughing.

Another challenge that Doudna poses for the maintenance staff is how to clean it.

Doudna features high glass walls that angle back, numerous windows and other quirky features that have never been seen before on campus.

Sigler said new machinery, such as an arm lift that not only raises or lowers, but also goes side to side, will help tremendously with cleaning the windows and glass walls.

But the challenges do not stop there. Near the south Seventh Street entrance by the ticket box is the recital hall for the music department. The walls to the entrance of the hall are layered with cloth, which could get dirty easily.

Sigler said maintenance is hoping people do not stand around and keep their feet up against those walls; otherwise, it is uncertain how to clean the walls.

"When they built this building, everything they have done is a challenge for the BSWs to keep it clean," Sigler said.

Closer to Booth Library and past the red room, portions of Doudna's walls have a copper exterior.

Sigler said maintenance first tried to hand wash the copper to keep it clean, but learned that could damage it.

"You don't normally have copper inside a building," he said. "Now, we do."

Research is being done on how to clean the copper and other features in Doudna, he added.

The floors are also a challenge. Students leaving ceramics and woodshop will ultimately track dust in the hallway that features a black stained concrete, Sigler said.

Those floors are not conducive to students walking around with ceramic dust on their feet, he added.

Maintenance will know better after two weeks of school what areas of Doudna need more attention, Sigler said.

"Everything about this building is a challenge," he said. "It was not built for the squeamish at heart of cleaning."





Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.

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