Wesleyan Aims to Improve Efficiency, Lower Cost By Asking Staff to Empty Wastebaskets

After eight custodians (10%) of the entire Wesleyan custodial staff, accepted retirements through a campus-wide Voluntary Separation Program, the university was forced to reconsider how it would handle routine cleaning chores.

"We've got 1000 employees on campus," Joyce Topshe, Associate Vice President for Facilities said. "And we decided that all staff, in affected buildings, would be required to empty their own office wastebaskets of trash and recylables."

When a memo to that effect was sent to staff, Topshe received about a dozen phone calls wondering if professors and administrators would be required to empty trash cans in common areas, classrooms, meeting rooms and labs.

One staff member who asked not to be identified wrote in an email:
"This policy was implemented without any consultation of the faculty, staff, and students who will now be carrying trash from the research labs and offices."

"All we're asking is for staff to empty that one little metal wastebasket that sits in their office. We don't want staff to worry about trash containers in areas used by more than one person," Topshe explained. "It's not so much about saving money, as it is about efficiency. It's a program we've borrowed from several other universities which have tried it successfully."

Topshe noted that the effort, while small, is one of many austerity measures being considered and implemented by the University in a down economy.

"It allows us to make the best use of a limited staff," Topshe said. Cleaning staff previously needed to unlock each individual office on campus to empty the wastebaskets, every day. "Now we're asking staff members to empty the wastebasket in a common receptacle so that all those individual offices don't need to be keyed, entered and checked."

According to Topshe's memo:

Changes in custodial services will affect private offices in the following buildings which are serviced by in-house custodians: Science Center/Science Library/Hall Atwater/Shanklin, VanVleck Observatory, Romance Languages, WSA, Judd Hall, Allbritton Center, Human Resources, Cady Building, Davison Art Center, Former Zion Church, and Russell House. Our goal is to focus daily cleaning services on high profile, heavily used spaces including: classrooms, meeting rooms, lounges, entranceways, hallways, bathrooms, and other common areas. Private offices in affected buildings will see a reduction in cleaning frequency to semi-annually or by request when needed.