Being a custodian is never an easy or pleasant job. As pristine as Grand Valley State University presents itself, the custodial department workers know the dirty truth behind the bleached floors and washed walls.

Custodians are often portrayed as men in dark gray or blue jumpsuits who roll their can of cleaning supplies from classroom to classroom, collecting garbage at night and whistling while they work.

However, the custodial department members at GVSU are not quite so stereotypical. With four supervisors in charge of 94 workers who work around the clock, the custodians at GVSU get much more done than simply picking up garbage.

Ed Wierzbicki, one of the supervisors for the custodial staff, said that after six years here, he has seen and heard it all.

“There are several stories that our custodians have shared with me over the years and that I have seen with my own two eyes that would probably gross most people out,” he said. “But with a good sense of humor and ample supply of rubber gloves, we clean it all up so everything is ready the next day.”

The department is in charge of many things, including replacing light bulbs, removing waste, recycling, supporting special events and performing housekeeping operations. They clean classrooms and bathrooms every night, set up for large events like community events, athletic events and student visitations. In addition to these tasks, they help aid in a bigger responsibility that benefits the entire university.

“The main thing our staff is responsible for each night is making sure that we are contributing to the success of students by providing a healthy, clean and positive atmosphere to live and learn in,” Wierzbicki explained.

Another large portion of the department’s job is receiving and taking care of work orders. Depending on the needs of the university, the number of work orders coming into the department differs by day. Each department gets its own set of work orders assigned to them based on the type of work they do. The custodial department receives a “pretty good balance” of work orders from both students and faculty/staff. This depends on if the request is for a living center or an academic building.

Most of Wierzbicki’s staff has individual routines assigned to them; the other handful provides support to campus whenever and wherever they are needed.

“The great asset that our custodial staff provides the university though is that many of them have worked in several buildings at one time or another in their career at GV,” he said. “(They) are always willing to go help in an emergency situation.”

The staff members are also always at the office. The custodial department is a 24/7 operation, meaning that there is always staff and a supervisor there, even if it is 2 a.m. Wierzbicki said this helps provide great customer service to the campus community.

A similar, less gruesome facilities department is the maintenance department. The 31 employees work alongside supervisor Jeff Marcinkowski and assistant supervisor Rence Meredith to maintain electrical repairs, temperature controls in buildings and plumbing. They process about 100 work orders each day, one third of which are generated by faculty and staff while the other two thirds are submitted by students.

“Daily routine for maintenance staff: respond to calls which come from customer service, to respond to fire calls and completion of work orders,” Marcinkowski said.

Maintenance workers also need to have a variety of skill sets before being hired at GVSU.

“Maintenance staff need to have experience in a variety of area,” Meredith explained. “HVAC, electrical, plumbing, building construction, hardware and customer service skills.”

Cutting out those jumpsuit wearing, hallway roaming stereotypes, custodian workers at GVSU are present on campus from small, needed tasks to larger issues of campus safety.