Buildings and Grounds No Longer Vacuuming University Dormitories

If you have been complaining this year about huge dust clods gathering in your refrigerators and cockroaches running through your hair, the reason is that student porters are no longer cleaning and vacuuming your room.

Due to a deficit in the Faculty budget, the cleaning service has been discontinued.

Regular cleaning service in the graduate schools has also been discontinued do to the deficit.

"Nobody, but nobody, has been affected by this [change] as far as janitors and other service men losing jobs," said Joseph A. Dussault, Supervisor of Caretaking for Dormitories and Houses.

However, the Department of Buildings and Grounds has increased the number of porters cleaning bathrooms and some permanent workers have either been transferred to the graduate schools or to education buildings, said Richard G. Leahy, assistant dean of the Faculty for Resources and Planning.

The budget for the caretaking division of the Department of Houses and College Dormitories this year is $920,000, a reduction of $80,000 from last year.

The Department of Buildings and Grounds in effect sells its services to the Department of Houses and College Dormitories, Dussaut said.

The University only attempts to "break even" on dormitory caretaking, Leahy said.