Cleaning up after freshman a full-time job

Melvin Keldo (Whetstone Contributor)

Williams Hall, the oldest dorm on the Wesley campus, is also one of the dirtiest.

“The basement bathroom was the worst,” said Wesley housekeeper Camuel Whaley. “Somebody threw a lot of toilet paper, bread, oranges, orange peels and poop and caused the toilet to clog and dry up. It was a poop salad!”

The housekeepers say they try their best to keep the dorms clean.

“It’s hard to keep up with a constant mess,” Whaley said.  “Once you clean a building, it gets dirty in an hour. When you clean the first floor and work all the way up to the third and come back down to the first, it is already a mess.”

Shane Jacobs, a 20-year-old junior, lived in Williams Hall as a freshman in 2011. He is now a Resident Assistant on the third floor of Williams and said he tries his best to make sure that his freshmen that live on his floor clean up after themselves.

“My freshman year was horrible,” Jacobs said. “There were cups of noodles in the sink, throw up, toilet paper on the floor and even the wonderful Solo cups.”

Housekeepers say that not only the bathrooms are messy, but the hallways and steps. Housekeepers are given three hours and 45 minutes to clean up the entire dorm.

Jose Torres, a housekeeper who has been working at Wesley for four years, said he takes a lot of pride in his work.

“I can’t keep up with that dorm,” Torres said. “Rolls of toilet paper, plastic bottles, food in sinks, throw up on the floor, trash in showers, trash in water fountains, which is uncalled for. I even found a whole pork chop in the toilet. My boss has me cleaning that dorm by myself.”

Torres said that to keep it clean, housekeepers have to work together.

“We housekeepers are here to help each other,” he said. “One person cannot do it alone.”

Ever since Jacobs became an R.A., he saw what the housekeepers go through.

“It’s difficult enough to clean the whole building,” Jacobs said. “As students, we have to do our part and most students don’t understand that we have one housekeeper per building.”

At least one student explained why it may be a mess.

“Bathrooms are sometimes dirty, but it’s cleaner now,” said Emanuel Amal, a 17-year-old freshman who lives on the first floor in Williams.

“I think the reason why the freshmen are leaving a mess is they feel like they are paying their tuition for the housekeepers to clean up,” he said. “Some don’t want to clean up after themselves.”

Jacobs said he’s seen some improvement in the past two years.

“Two years ago, it was definitely more dirty than this year,” he said. “Now that I’m an R.A., it is easier to tell the freshmen to be respectful to the housekeepers.”

Even housekeeping said it’s a little better this year.

“As far as the guys staying here now, they are more cooperative,” Torres said. “They look out for me.”