Several graduate students, under the supervision of Dr. Rebecca Galemba of the Korbel School of International Studies, have spent months conducting a research project focusing on the perspectives of the custodial staff at DU, who were subcontracted to Sodexo last April. 

The research began during a class taught by Dr. Galemba last quarter, which focused on “Community-Based Qualitative Research Methods.” 

Alex Nelson, a graduate student at the Korbel School of International Studies, was one of the four students, including Micah Gahagan, Adam El Akked, Otiwaa Ampofo, and translator Ella Donovan, who took the class and focused on the custodians for their project.

Their research aimed to understand the perspectives of the custodial workers as they have adjusted to working under Sodexo.

When Dr. Galemba introduced the idea as a potential research project, Nelson jumped at the opportunity because the custodians represented an aspect of the campus community they he was unfamiliar with. 

“We want to center their voices, make sure they’re heard and seen. It’s not about what we want from the project, it’s about their motivations and needs,” Nelson said.

One of the first steps of the project was to complete a community mapping exercise to observe community dynamics with fresh eyes. The students were intrigued because they noticed that while buildings were clean and hard work was evident around campus, the custodial staff themselves were often overlooked.

“You’d see clean carpets, clean tables, but [the custodians’] literal presence was never evident,” said Nelson.

The students agreed to present their ongoing research to the Clarion on the condition that their sources remain anonymous, to avoid possible retribution.

The students and Dr. Galemba then began a long process of interviewing custodians with the help of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) representatives. To maintain confidentiality in data collection, the team took notes only on paper and refrained from recording audio.  

The students then coded their qualitative individual and group interviews, as well as separate meetings with union representatives. Within their interviews, they recognized several recurring concerns among custodial staff.

One issue, according to Nelson, is that some custodians were surprised to hear that they had accrued far less PTO than they had previously thought they had.

Custodians also seemed confused as to why the value for PTO accrued no longer showed up on their paychecks, as it had prior to the Sodexo transition. Instead, custodians now have to reach out to Sodexo themselves to find out how much they have accumulated.

Specifically, the students had interviewed one custodian who told them she only had 23 hours of accrued PTO, even though she had taken only three days off over 10 months. 

The union, to investigate the issue, asked Sodexo to provide them with a comprehensive report on the exact amount of accrued PTO for each of the 115 current custodians. Sodexo agreed to supply the information, but has yet to send the union any such report.

Another issue frequently mentioned by the custodians, according to Abel Gonzalez, the local union representative, and interviews conducted by the students, is that they are being assigned an area to clean that is larger than what they are used to or able to clean to the specifications they are usually held accountable as well.

“Two years ago, they were given two areas to cover; now, they are being told they have to cover six areas,” said Gonzalez.

Yet, Sodexo doesn’t expect the workers to clean those areas to their previous standards. Instead, Sodexo wants them to cover more ground, but clean less thoroughly. 

“[The new standard] is literally [to clean] bathrooms, trash, and whatever else is possible [in the time they have],” said Gonzalez.

According to Gonzalez and the students, these reduced specifications for the cleanliness of areas have not been appropriately communicated to the custodians themselves. Some custodians remain confused about how they could be expected to cover a larger ground with the same attention to detail they had before. 

Many custodians take pride in knowing that areas are cleaned thoroughly, and don’t understand why they are essentially being told to do an inferior job. 

“It’s weird for someone to tell you to do your job worse,” said Gonzalez.

Custodians who are used to completing their work to a certain standard feel like they’re letting their community down. 

“We want to do a good job,” one anonymous worker said.

Another common theme identified by the research students was that custodians feel a lack of respect and belonging because they are technically no longer employed by DU. Many custodians, who in some cases have worked at the university for decades, originally accepted their positions knowing that they would be employed by DU and a part of the campus community.

According to the students, being employed by Sodexo has made some custodians feel they are no longer a valued part of the community. 

“I used to be comfortable working at DU and [felt like a] part of the community, but now I feel more like a stranger,” another anonymous custodian said.

Understanding these concerns and presenting them to the community is a goal of the students, who will continue their research into the summer. 

According to Gonzalez, however, mobilizing the custodians themselves has been difficult.

During a union member-only meeting in March, a custodian voiced concerns about a manager. According to Gonzalez, the manager subsequently confronted the worker, demanding to know why they had made the comments. 

The event may have dissuaded many custodians from participating in union meetings, as they feared that their comments, too, could be leaked to supervisors.

Another reason that could be preventing custodians from becoming involved with the union is that many are content with the new contract they have with Sodexo, which was successfully negotiated by AFSCME. 

The contract improved in several areas, including slightly increased wages. 

Under Sodexo, custodial staff are also guaranteed a free meal every shift in the dining hall when the kitchens are open. 

Although the contract is good on paper, both Gonzalez and the team of students believe that greater transparency from Sodexo would benefit all parties involved.

Another area of improvement, according to the students, would be to have more involvement from both students and faculty in issues that custodial staff are facing. Although these problems had lots of traction last April when the transition was announced, they were soon overshadowed by campus events like the encampment last spring.

According to the students, the custodians feel that their contribution to the campus could be amplified given the proper tools. 

“I want to do the work,” another anonymous staff member told researchers, “just give me the time and materials to do it.”