Dirty Work?: Dorm Crew Enjoys Resurgence

It was not a pretty sight.

When Dorm Crew suffered from labor shortages last year, the Adams House bathroom of Kate F. Douglas '02 , became a haven of filth and dirt which accumulated "a layer of black unidentifiable substance," she says.

The rare visits from the cleaning crew not only attacked the grime but also became opportunities for spontaneous celebration.

"When [Dorm Crew] came last year we were so happy we talked about it for days," she says. "But they only came like three times."

This year, however, Dorm Crew has rebounded, cleaning 50 percent more bathrooms than last year, according to Robert F. Wolfreys, a Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) official who is Dorm Crew's supervisor. The group now cleans three quarters of bathrooms on campus, up from just half last year.

"We have more people working and people working more hours," Wolfreys says.

Dorm Crew staff members attribute the turnaround to more aggressive recruiting efforts and better communication with contract cleaning companies that allow bathrooms to get cleaned even when labor shortages prevent Dorm Crew from getting the job done.

And while some rooms still go uncleaned, many others, like Douglas, are finding their bathrooms spic-and-span.

"Steven, that's the guy's name, comes the same time every Friday," she says. "Our bathroom's always clean--my roommate even leaves him candy sometimes."

A Tight Labor Market

Last year many House bathrooms went uncleaned because of a shortage of Dorm Crew workers. Wolfreys says Dorm Crew's staffing problems stemmed from a $2,000 financial aid increase and the economy's prosperity.

"A lot of students can make considerably more money doing things like web design...and they can do that from their rooms," he said.

Because of the lack of students interested, many Houses outsourced their cleaning to FMO and UNICCO, a nationwide maintenance and janitorial company. Some bathrooms in Kirkland, Winthrop, Leverett, Eliot, Lowell, Currier, Quincy and Mather Houses are currently still done by FMO and UNICCO.

But Dorm Crew cleans some rooms in each House, and in Pforzheimer, Cabot and Adams House, as well as Claverly Hall and the Yard dorms, Dorm Crew cleans every bathroom.

Sherina Feliciano-Santos '02, one of the head captains of Dorm Crew, says the organization has grown by recruiting more first-year students for Fall Cleanup, a five-day program which pays students to prepare the dorms for their new inhabitants.

Dorm Crew had four times as many first-years doing Fall Cleanup as last year, according to Wolfreys.

This increase in first-year participation came after the Freshman Dean's Office allowed Dorm Crew to recruit students for the program through their April mailing to first-years. Previously, the mailing only included information about the other pre-orientation programs: the First-Year Outdoor Program, First-Year Arts Program and First-Year Urban Program.

Samantha Dennison '04 and Alyssa M. Smith '04 say they found out about Fall Cleanup through the April mailing. Both decided to do Fall Cleanup over other pre-orientation programs because they would get paid.

Like many students who participated in the program, both still work for Dorm Crew.

"It's a good job because it's flexible hours and great pay," Dennison says. "If I hadn't done Fall Cleanup, I probably wouldn't have done [Dorm Crew]. I mean, cleaning bathrooms, what's the fuss about?"

Fall Cleanup organizers also tried to make the program more fun.

"We made an effort to make freshmen feel more welcome," said Tatiana Gonzalez '01, captain of Leverett House. The program hosted social events every night, like dances and a band performance.

"I went to a baseball game, which was fun because I'd never been to a baseball game before," Dennison says. "It was ice-breaking, especially since you don't know anyone."

Dorm Crew has also recruited new workers by employing student groups to clean some bathrooms, Wolfreys says. The women's rugby team and a Harvard dance troupe have already cleaned bathrooms this year to raise money.

Despite this success in recruiting first-years and student groups, Gonzalez said she still posters weekly.

"We as captains made more of a conscious effort to keep things up," she says.

Someone To Lean On

In the Houses where Dorm Crew still faces labor shortages, Feliciano-Santos says the organization has done a better job of coordinating with FMO and UNICCO so that bathrooms still get cleaned.

Matthew Stec, the former Leverett House superintendent, says when Dorm Crew does not have enough workers to clean all the bathrooms in one week, they alert the superintendent, who calls FMO.

"As long as it gets done, that's the ultimate goal," Stec says. "How it gets done is neither here nor there."

Amara L. Murray '03, captain of Dorm Crew in Eliot House, says the bathrooms in Eliot are cleaner this year because of better organization, although Dorm Crew only cleans about one-third of the entryways.

Murray says Dorm Crew divides up the cleaning with custodians according to the labor they have available.

"We could still use more workers, but at least we're able to get to what we assign ourselves," she says.

Some students, however, say visits from dorm crew are still infrequent.

"I've only seen someone from Dorm Crew come in once," says Byram P. Karanjia '04, who lives in Grays Hall. "There's always weird flecks of brown material on our sink. It's all dusty around the toilet. There's hair all over the bathroom floor."

But while Dorm Crew officials acknowledge some kinks in the new system remain, they say this year is a vast improvement over last year.

"When all the changes came in we needed adjustment time," Feliciano-Santos says. "Last year was our adjustment time."

Wolfreys says he has got the e-mails to demonstrate Dorm Crew's success.

"We've already had 150 compliments e-mailed to us this year," he says. "That's far more than we have ever received before."

--Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu.