After about four grueling hours on the job, two friends and coworkers of three years sat down to a relaxing lunch at 2 a.m.
Karen Jones and Roxanne Wright, two members of the countless night custodians on campus, house keep for hundreds of students five nights a week while being overlooked by the people who benefit from their work.
These two women work in the dead of night along the barren halls of Ball Communication Building, wheeling carts holding a garrison of supplies to bathrooms and office spaces.
As the custodians began their duties, the final students of the day lazily walked home, the sound of their footsteps echoing in the building, which had become a ghost town.
Those students walked along the dull, scuffed floors and past the offices harboring dust and germs in the walked upon carpets. Trash bins everywhere bulged with the waste of those who worked in the offices.
They passed the bathrooms, which were in dire need of attention after the long day. The bathrooms smelled of urine and the porcelain sinks were stained with the brown streaks of coffee residue. The tiny trash cans overflowed onto the tile floors.
In the adjacent men's room, the floor near the toilet was splattered by the poor accuracy of men, and the excess urine evaporated leaving a sticky residue.
Wright, who has 10 years experience on the night staff, said she began her cleaning for the night in the bathrooms by using chemical sprays that emit harsh fumes into the air, which saturated the entire bathroom. From the sinks to the toilet seats, droplets of liquid ejected from the spray bottles settled onto the surfaces and were wiped clean by the custodians.
They also poured an acidic cleaner into the toilet bowls and whisked the water with toilet brushes, which formed small waves that splashed the custodians. They scraped the brushes underneath the brim to clean more unnoticed spaces.
The night custodians then left the clean bathroom and erased their tracks with mops.
After the bathrooms, the custodians' industrial vacuum swept across the surface of office carpets, maneuvering in the labyrinth of usual office chairs, desks, coffee tables and electrical cords.
The warbling chirps of the vacuum rung throughout the vacant room as it sucked up paper clips and pennies. Static charges were created and expelled upon the custodians every time they neared the desk top.
From the offices, they pulled the bulging trash out to the dumpster outside.
"We are ghosts in the night," Wright said about Jones and herself.
Jones, with 11 years experience on night staff, said she never had gotten used to working the night shift and that doctors said working nights was demanding and unhealthy for the body.
It is rare for the custodians to come in contact with the people for whom they clean. The custodians and office workers communicated only through faceless Post-it notes left on desks or by e-mail with a specific cleaning request.
The custodians had done a good job caring for the facilities, Wright said, but their work goes unnoticed because after a few hours during the day, the buildings were already dirty again.
Although thousands of students ruin the halls each day, Wright said it didn't deter the workers from doing their best in the areas they have cleaned for years.
"You have to treat [the building] like your second home," she said. "You don't want your home looking bad."
When the custodians receive a note with a request for stripping a floor, Wright said they have to prepare for a night-long process.
Stripping the floors means replacing old coats of wax on a floor with new wax. Putting on a new coat of wax can take an hour itself, she said, and they must manage their usual tasks on top of these note requests.
"You have to learn where you can cut corners," she said, which could include not vacuuming a particular office space that would normally be cleaned.
While the night crew was thankful for their jobs and said they realized it had to be done, problems still surface throughout the year.
Major building renovations caused their previous supply closets to be converted into offices, which means Jones and Wright must trek through the building to gather the supplies.
Other problems that occur are scheduling issues. Their five-day week begins on Sunday night and continues through Thursday night, which causes them to work on the nights of Christmas and Independence Day. Although the scheduling wasn't desirable, Wright said they can still see some fireworks through the building windows.
After the cleaning, waxing and vacuuming, the custodians return home from their nightly odyssey even before students and staff come in for work. At home, they have their early dinners and lay down to rest.
But even through long nights and aggravation, their jobs offer them laughs as well, Jones said. Many times fellow custodians quip, "don't quit your night job," she said with a smile.
Reporter's noteEarlier in the semester I wanted to profile the dirty, lesser-known jobs on campus to show students what it takes to keep the university operating smoothly. I have participated in all the cleanup activities. I would like to thank all those who helped me while on the job. Without them, not only would the campus not be operational, but these articles couldn't be written.
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