Spring Break
Part 6: Fading Facilities Services
Tyler Will
Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: News
11/07/08 - Think writing a five-page term paper you procrastinated on is tough? Try cleaning 14 University of Rhode Island buildings on a 12-hour shift, three days a week.
Think that's hard? Do it when there are wads of paper towels crammed into the toilet and dried mucus on the walls.
That's what some URI housekeepers face each week in the wake of a 10 percent cut to the Facilities Services budget. University Facilities Services Director Jerry Sidio said workers usually clean from 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. The rest is voluntary overtime.
The $820,000 cut from an $8.2 million budget has generated 30 department vacancies, according to Sidio.
"The big part of our budget … is man power," Sidio said. "So a large part of that reduction came from not being able to fill positions."
He said there had been about 190 staff positions before the vacancies, and other university outlets are facing similar cuts.
Facilities Services achieved the reductions without layoffs, Sidio said. Although the department's budget is in line with the university requirements for cuts, the large number of vacancies has required more work of a smaller number of employees.
Sidio said Facilities Services is organized into five departments: Administration, Landscape and Grounds, Maintenance and Repair, Utilities Management and Custodial Services.
"The budget is generally not sufficient to staff us at the level we would like to be at to operate at 100 percent effectiveness," Sidio said. "Our staff is always dependent on the budget on any given year."
He said there are 10 vacancies in housekeeping. The cancellation of a state contract with TriState, a private cleaning company, has added to the stress of URI housekeepers. The state cancelled the contract this summer due to the use of illegal immigrants in state buildings. Fourteen URI buildings were cleaned by TriState, and those buildings are now cleaned by URI staff for four hours by workers who volunteer for overtime, Golomb said.
Think that's hard? Do it when there are wads of paper towels crammed into the toilet and dried mucus on the walls.
That's what some URI housekeepers face each week in the wake of a 10 percent cut to the Facilities Services budget. University Facilities Services Director Jerry Sidio said workers usually clean from 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. The rest is voluntary overtime.
The $820,000 cut from an $8.2 million budget has generated 30 department vacancies, according to Sidio.
"The big part of our budget … is man power," Sidio said. "So a large part of that reduction came from not being able to fill positions."
He said there had been about 190 staff positions before the vacancies, and other university outlets are facing similar cuts.
Facilities Services achieved the reductions without layoffs, Sidio said. Although the department's budget is in line with the university requirements for cuts, the large number of vacancies has required more work of a smaller number of employees.
Sidio said Facilities Services is organized into five departments: Administration, Landscape and Grounds, Maintenance and Repair, Utilities Management and Custodial Services.
"The budget is generally not sufficient to staff us at the level we would like to be at to operate at 100 percent effectiveness," Sidio said. "Our staff is always dependent on the budget on any given year."
He said there are 10 vacancies in housekeeping. The cancellation of a state contract with TriState, a private cleaning company, has added to the stress of URI housekeepers. The state cancelled the contract this summer due to the use of illegal immigrants in state buildings. Fourteen URI buildings were cleaned by TriState, and those buildings are now cleaned by URI staff for four hours by workers who volunteer for overtime, Golomb said.
