Behind the bleach
How your campus rooms get cleaned
Rosie Githinji
Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: News
When students move into their residence halls and apartments on campus, they find their rooms clean and all their appliances in working order. What they don't see is all the work that went in to making sure their living space is in the best condition possible.
Associate Director of University Housing Bob Legate works with a team of people to makes sure students are moving into rooms that meet SIUE's cleanliness standards.
"The standards are so high, and quality is critical," Legate said.
There is a lot of paperwork involved with the cleaning process, according to Legate. Once a unit is turned over to Housing, it is inspected to make sure it is empty and nothing has been left behind. After the pre-inspection, the unit is released to different crews, who check everything over and fix what is needed.
Each residence hall room or apartment is released to a crew of painters, plumbers, carpenters and electricians, according to Legate. Each of the crews has inspection protocols they have to follow, Legate said.
Each of the crews has a punch list of specifications that they check to make sure everything is as it should be, according to Legate. After each crew has been through the rooms, it is then handed over to the cleaning crews of L&L Janitorial.
"One of the challenges we face is we clean the units and prepare them for occupation, but once the students move in, it becomes challenging to meet the standards we have," Legate said.
Landers Watson, owner of L&L Janitorial, began cleaning the apartments as a sub-contractor for Sam Green, who owned the previous cleaning company. Watson started out cleaning the floors. When Green retired, took over cleaning the residence halls and apartments at SIUE.
"The reason they hire people like us is because they have no full-time cleaning employees," Watson said. "They would have to hire 35 full-time janitors to keep up."
Watson said parents are happy with the quality of the rooms when they move their children onto campus.
Associate Director of University Housing Bob Legate works with a team of people to makes sure students are moving into rooms that meet SIUE's cleanliness standards.
"The standards are so high, and quality is critical," Legate said.
There is a lot of paperwork involved with the cleaning process, according to Legate. Once a unit is turned over to Housing, it is inspected to make sure it is empty and nothing has been left behind. After the pre-inspection, the unit is released to different crews, who check everything over and fix what is needed.
Each residence hall room or apartment is released to a crew of painters, plumbers, carpenters and electricians, according to Legate. Each of the crews has inspection protocols they have to follow, Legate said.
Each of the crews has a punch list of specifications that they check to make sure everything is as it should be, according to Legate. After each crew has been through the rooms, it is then handed over to the cleaning crews of L&L Janitorial.
"One of the challenges we face is we clean the units and prepare them for occupation, but once the students move in, it becomes challenging to meet the standards we have," Legate said.
Landers Watson, owner of L&L Janitorial, began cleaning the apartments as a sub-contractor for Sam Green, who owned the previous cleaning company. Watson started out cleaning the floors. When Green retired, took over cleaning the residence halls and apartments at SIUE.
"The reason they hire people like us is because they have no full-time cleaning employees," Watson said. "They would have to hire 35 full-time janitors to keep up."
Watson said parents are happy with the quality of the rooms when they move their children onto campus.
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