Custodians know how often buildings should be cleaned.
By Emily Garcia
egarcia1009@student.alamo.edu
Inspections of buildings at this college are being done by Dr. Stella Lovato, vice president of college services, in response to complaints.
“My responsibility as vice president is to gather information and make sure the housekeepers are meeting the needs of faculty, staff and students,” Lovato said.
Protocol for finding issues with housekeeping is reporting it to facilities, Lovato said.
“After I report it, my job is to make sure improvements are followed through,” Lovato said.
The best way to keep up with complaints students, faculty or staff may have with housekeeping is to always provide documentation, said Vanessa Torres, director of public relations.
“The more documentation, proof and evidence that there is a problem, the more facilities can help solve the problem,” Torres said. “I even had a student contact me on Twitter about toilet paper missing from a restroom in Moody, and we took care of the issue immediately.”
If faculty or staff has a complaint about housekeeping, they must contact the chair of the department and the chair should then file a work order, which would be sent to facilities, Lovato said.
Changes have already been made since Lovato started asking tenants of buildings how to improve their custodial services, said David Ortega, district facilities superintendent.
A change that has been made is the frequency of servicing Moody Learning Center restrooms, Ortega said.
The frequency and cleaning levels of buildings are determined by the amount of usage of the building, Ortega said.
“On the second floor of Moody, there is constant flow of students in and out of there,” Ortega said. “That is a high usage area of the building, so that is going to determine how often those restrooms should be cleaned.”
The frequency level that is being maintained on the second floor of Moody is Association of Physical Plant Administrators: Leadership in Education Facilities Level 3, he said. There are five levels.
The project manager in the building, as well as housekeepers, should be aware of how much traffic goes through a building, Ortega said.
“It should be evident to the project manager of the building and the housekeepers how frequent restrooms are being used and how frequently they should clean them,” Ortega said.
Lovato can be contacted at 210-486-0903.
To submit a facilities service request, do so at https://alamo.oncfi.com/woform/woform.jsp.
Facilities management can be reached at 210-486-1235.