Page 25 - College Planning & Management, October 2018

GETTING CLEAN
underwent a full day of training in the code.
How important are these codes to judging cleanliness? Surveys
show that people notice. In one APPA poll of 1,481 Brigham Young University students, 88 percent defined what they believed to be a distracting educational environment. Their definition resembled APPA’s Level 3, defined as Casual Inattention, as well as Level
4, defined as moderate dinginess. Eighty-four percent said they wanted their school’s learning environment to meet requirements that resembled APPA’s Level 1 or Level 2 standards.
The Importance of Training
It might be noted that additional studies suggest that APPA’s Level 1 and Level 2 cleanliness standards help to promote learning, while less clean environments can detract from learning.
Kornegay also recommends constant custodial training. “In between cleaning routines, there must also be time for train- ing,” he says. “Additional training should include dealing with hazardous materials and, perhaps worse, blood-borne patho- gens—in case of an accident in which an individual receives a serious cut.”
Training should also cover the handling of cleaning chemicals,
continues Kornegay. What are the appropriate cleaning chemi-
cal mixing ratios? Why is it important to adhere to these ratios? Custodians must know how much of each chemical to apply for the sake of adequate cleaning as well as safe use.
Safe handling techniques are important, too. What, for ex- ample, is the best way to transfer chemicals into spray bottles that are then properly labeled?
“Custodians also need training to understand the safe opera- tion of power equipment,” Kornegay says. “For instance, there are different types of floor buffers. Some you push; some you ride.
“Custodians may have to use a lift to clean high areas and change lamps in fixtures set in high ceilings. To carry out these tasks, they will need to understand safety equipment, such as harnesses.
In the end, cleaning and custodial work are specialized jobs. “University managers should never short-change the custodial staff,” Kornegay says. “They are safeguarding the facilities for students, faculty, and staff.”
It is a job that has become much more than mopping. Today, it requires a specialized, technical expertise to ensure both cleanli- ness and safety. CPM
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