“I’ve been here over 15 years. I feel like they don’t care about us anymore. They don’t care about the students. We’ve done all we can. It was their own doing – they got rid of the third shift, laid people off. The new company won’t tell us what our wages are gonna be. And the company only has to keep us for 6 months. It’s supposed to be a 5 year contract, but they only have to keep current workers for 6 months. So right around Christmas a lot of us are gonna be sent away. If they have different institutions, they can send you there. We now belong to them. Are they gonna make us wear uniforms? What about the gas for driving all over? There’s supposed to be five companies, but I feel like they’ve already picked out who’s gonna be doing it. It’s been going on for a long time. They’ve wanted to do it. And with Sarah [Bolton] leaving, the Board is using this as an opportunity to blame it on her, when they’ve been planning this all along. It really saddens me to see the dirt in halls and buildings build up. What about when they turnover for the summer camps and all? I don’t see how that’ll work. There’s not enough of us. What’s gonna happen when you guys come back in August? Are they gonna have a full crew?”
– Custodian
“We’re not supposed to be talking to you. About anything. We’re told to come in, clean, and keep our mouths shut. But it’s hard for us to come in. We’re down to 17 people for two shifts. It’s scary. It’s just the unknown. We want to clean. We want to do it. But we just don’t have the time. We can’t do it. They don’t let us come in anymore. Everyday you come in and you don’t know what’s gonna happen. They don’t know the buildings like we do. They don’t give us the time we need to really clean them. This is just the beginning. Next what? The bookstore, grounds crew… it doesn’t stop here. And it’s sad because the faculty only started caring after the copy center. When it applies to them. We’re kinda just in the background, but everybody’s known since January.”
– Custodian
“For me, I’m excited about the change. I think it’s gonna really open up bigger doors for us that work here. That way we don’t feel so stagnant in our position. I think that’s gonna be great. I think it’s gonna be tough delivery, but if they can do what they promised, it’s gonna be great for students and for us who work here. For international students, they [Creative Dining] said they would set something up where the students can teach us how to make their food and all. I don’t want to lose the connection with the students. I want the company to do what it says it will. And give us more opportunities to grow as a company.”
– Dining Staff
“Here are my thoughts. If our upper management would have tried to resolve our issues I feel like this wouldn’t be an option. Also advocating more for the staff we feel would have helped. I felt like listening to the staff and involving us in the issues that we were facing would have helped. Being very open and transparent, which I feel they weren’t.”
– Dining staff
