McClatchy Tribune

The plant operations of California State University, Fresno has reduced its custodial staff this semester in response to the ubiquitous budget cuts.

Robert Boyd, the associate vice president for facilities management, said that the number of contract custodial employees has fallen from just over 70 to 57.

“That’s just about as lean as we can get,â€Â Boyd said.

Along with the staff reduction, the weekend service will no longer be available. In previous years, there was a janitorial crew that was present on Saturdays to supplement the weekday crew.

Boyd said that some cleaning is less likely to be done. He said that the difference would be seen in ancillary cleaning such as window washing or dusting the blinds.

“We’ll [still] be able to provide a quality level of service,â€Â Boyd said.

The custodial staff at Fresno State cleans the faculty offices weekly, but the classrooms, hallways and bathrooms receive daily service.

However, not all of the staff and faculty are happy with the level of service, and not just since the reduction.

Psychology professor Karl Oswald, whose office is located in the Science II building, said he is not satisfied with the current janitorial service.

“I’ll be totally honest with you. It was poor before, and it’s still poor,â€Â Oswald said.

With office trash being emptied only once a week, staff has had to get used to the level of service provided.

“We’ve kind of been trained to throw our smelly stuff down the hall,â€Â Oswald said.

A particular problem seemed to be the cleanliness of the bathrooms.

According to history professor Ethan Kytle, whose office is in the Social Science building, the trash cans in the bathrooms on the first floor of the building tend to overflow, and don̢۪t get emptied often enough.

The women̢۪s bathrooms in the Family and Food Sciences building don̢۪t fair any better according to Dietetics Program Director Lisa Herzig.

“We run out of toilet paper. We run out of paper towels,â€Â Herzig said.

The faculty offices get less traffic and tend to be in better shape, according to Africana and American Indian studies professor T. Hasan Johnson, whose office is in the Science building.

“I haven’t had any problems, but over time I’m sure that’s going to be an issue,â€Â Johnson said.