Photo taken by custodian Devin Adkins of the Women’s restroom on the second floor of the Professional Center.(Devin Adkins/File photo)
The poor condition of some Citrus College bathrooms has become an issue for students who use these facilities.
There are 44 buildings on the 104-acres Citrus College campus. With 33 custodial employees doing their cleaning at night, most students are unaware of their work.
There are roughly 150 restrooms for the custodial crew to maintain every night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“Not only do they clean the restrooms, they clean all the classrooms, all the offices, all the common spaces. Each one gets different treatment,” said Fred Diamond, director of facilities.
“They have to do their work at night because number one are the students,” Diamond said. “Providing a good place for students has to be done at a off-time so that they can still go to class.”
The student body may be unaware of the custodial staff’s work, Diamond explained, because since they are out of sight, they are out of mind, but that does not mean students should not pick up after themselves.
With an enrollment of approximately 18,000 students, some restrooms need more attention than others, especially those in older buildings.
Mune Motani, a Citrus music and theater major, pointed out a problem area. “The restrooms are in horribly decrepit condition, especially the ones in the theater arts building,” he said.
Motani emphasize on the, out-of-date and water-wasting urinals. “By the time we hit college, we should know how to clean up after ourselves, so the students need to at least pick up after themselves,” Motani said.
Most students try to avoid those restrooms by walking to the Student Services and Administration buildings, he said.
“I think a lot of the mess happens during the day with all the students so if they had custodial help during the day, that’ll probably help maintain the restrooms,” Motani said.
“It would be nice if they can get some people during the day but times are tough and it’s very difficult,” said Leslie Arnold, custodial supervisor. “I really think with what they have, they’re doing a great job.”
The Facilities Department is aware of the need to remodel outdated restrooms, such as, those in the Professional Center and Liberal Arts buildings.
“People seem to see the porcelain and they see the black or the scratches and they think it’s from the cleaning not being done when in fact the porcelain has been scrubbed off,” Arnold said.
With the construction of the Fine Arts and Communications Building less than two years away from completion, students and faculty must help maintain the bathrooms until the custodial staff can be expanded.
“Maybe we can get the general population a little more educated about the bathrooms, maybe getting some group participation,” said Devin Adkins, an eight-year custodial employee.
Adkins suggests instead of students ignoring a flooded toilet, to ask a staff member to call to fix the problem.
“The proper reporting structure would be to a teacher, or a librarian, or a staff member. It would have to be some sort of effort by staff and students,” Adkins said.
