Suite restrooms on campus see changes

By Ross Hickenbottom, Transcript reporter

Get your mops ready. The Ohio Wesleyan housekeeping department and their partners, Aramark, are doing things a little different this year.

On the residential side of campus, suite restrooms will only be cleaned once every three weeks. In years past, they were cleaned weekly.

Dorms affected will include Thomson Hall, Bashford Hall and 4 Williams Drive.

Aramark Services Manager Darryl Phelps described how Aramark will change their cleaning agenda for the rest of the school year.

“The restrooms are stocked to last a three­week period, but if something comes up, if toilet paper gets stolen or anything like that, we have a system worked out with the Residential Life staff in place where they can sign a sheet posted on the custodial closet,” Phelps said.

Darryl went on to explain that “We’re told by our Aramark partner that we are the only place that cleans the suite restrooms at all. Everywhere else they work, the students are responsible for cleaning up after themselves in their restrooms. We’re not taking that step, we’re still participating in the cleaning of suite restrooms, but we have reduced the frequency.”

Though no schools in the surrounding area partner with Aramark, Wittenberg University does. There, “every Sunday they clean and replace everything. Midweek a couple days they clean but don’t replace items,” Wittenberg junior Landon Hormann said.

As far as cost effectiveness goes, Dan Hitchell, vice president of finances, said the changes are going to have a positive impact on the budget.

“There were cost savings by doing this. We’re bringing Merrick Hall back online, we’re bringing part of Edwards Gym as well as Simpson Querry Fitness Center,” said Hitchell. “So we are adding square footage to campus by making these changes; therefore by changing the cleaning schedule we are able to save some money and bring the facilities back online without an increase in budget.”

Freshman Jake Riddell, who lives in Thomson Hall, is glad the campus is being cost effective.

But he doesn’t agree with how they’re doing it.

“It’s great that OWU is saving money, I get that,” Riddell said. “But the restrooms get out of hand, so if anything, I think they should be maintained more often.”