With the new draft plan of classes resuming on campus and in person the beginning of fall semester and all of spring semester for the University of Wyoming, we start to ask ourselves a few things. Will these same precautions be implemented? What sort of steps is the University taking to keep COVID-19 at bay? Will we be safe?
The draft plan for the 2020-2021 year, shared by the University of Wyoming trustees on June 2, elaborates on new implementations the University is taking for the health and safety of the students and faculty members. This involves increased cleaning, renovations to dorms and communal spaces to allow social distancing and altering visitation guidelines. Furthermore, hand sanitizer and face mask stations will be placed in high traffic areas and outside offices, classrooms and common areas for public use.
“UW Operations has put forth a plan for how it will operate in the fall if on campus classes resume, including Custodial Services duties,” stated Custodial Services Manager Tod Scott. “If there is an outbreak of cases on campus, I foresee that we would move back to strictly online instruction again and Custodial Staff would continue to clean and disinfect as we have been doing since shutting down at spring break.”
More specifically, UW is hiring more custodians and altering their shifts in order to continuously clean campus buildings and high traffic areas. These high traffic areas include doorknobs, tabletops, handrails, sink faucets, pencil sharpeners, drinking stations and many more areas that are constantly touched by students and faculty.
The essential duties and responsibilities for custodians, according to the job description made by UW Human Resources, are to sweep, mop, strip and wax floors, vacuum and spot clean carpets, dust, wash windows and door glass, maintain restroom and shower cleanliness, and much more. All these duties will continue to be completed as they have in the past, however, the high traffic spots will simply be cleaned more often than usual. This is possible due to the additional custodial staff to hopefully be hired.
“We have submitted a plan and budget to hire additional staff,” stated Scott, “approximately 15 full time or 30 part time, to disinfect classrooms between class sessions when they start in the fall.”
Currently there are two shifts, one from 5 am to 1:30 pm and another from 4 pm to midnight, each 8-hour shifts with a 30-minute unpaid break, which are most efficient for cleaning under normal circumstances. However, with the current pandemic, continuous cleaning is necessary in order to provide the best care for UW individuals. The additional staff would allow cleaning in between classes from 1:30 pm to 4 pm. Further modifications may be made to the shifts in order to provide top notch cleaning services, according to Scott, if the plan for additional custodians to be hired is approved. Some of these changes would be splitting break times and hours to spread out working custodians across campus to attempt social distancing.
“We are being extra vigilant about disinfecting high touch areas and putting practices in place to keep our staff safe based on CDC recommendations,” stated Scott.
Scott and UW faculty are placing extra emphasis on hand washing, hand sanitizer use, personal protective gear like gloves and eye protection and are encouraging the use of face masks provided by the director’s office especially when not working alone for the custodians. Furthermore, custodians are provided uniform shirts and an allowance for work jeans to be purchased. Overall, the custodian’s uniform requirements have not been altered other than the encouragement of wearing face masks when working with others. UW students will also be required to wear face masks when in communal spaces according to the draft plan.
The University of Wyoming has always done a fine job in keeping our campus clean for our health and satisfaction. Now, our health is at even more of a risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Custodial Staff is taking extra steps to keep us healthy. The University is working to provide additional staff and assuring an adequate supply of cleaning necessities for the custodians to complete their job following CDC regulations. This next school year, custodians are going to work hard for our safety and, therefore, are heroes along with our firemen and nurses on the front lines.
