Amid staffing shortages, bathrooms suffer
Sinks, toilet with seat cover, water on the floor of L5 women’s restroom.
February 19, 2020
Standards are slipping as De Anza struggles to maintain its restrooms throughout the campus.
“Due to personnel reductions, the custodial staff are only able to maintain service at Level 5 of the APPA Custodial Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities,” according to custodial services on De Anza’s website.
“Level 5 is considered unkempt neglect,” said Manny DaSilva, manager of custodial operations.
One of the more infamous restrooms is L5, a structure on the edge of campus close to parking lot B.
“It’s so bad last week when I went to the bathroom there was barf on the floor, it was orange, chunky,” said Tina Vo, 19, public health major. “It was just gross.”
Speaking of L5 in particular, DaSilva said “If you had to go to the bathroom at 10 a.m. you would swear no one had been there for days.”
Not everyone on campus believes the restrooms are in need of drastic measures.
Billy Dip, 30, machining major, compared the restrooms to a local San Jose college.
“Restrooms on this campus are cleaner than Evergreen,” Dip said.
The custodial staff has been cut in half from 30 to 15 said Genevieve Kolar at a DASB meeting held on Jan. 29.
DaSilva said that it would take 6 to 7 new custodians to get the campus back up to a level 3.
“Some people don’t lift the toilet seat, I hate it when the toilet seats are not clean,” said Bobar Jallal, 23, computer science major.
Students helping to report and clean up after themselves would help, said DaSilva.
“Treat it like your home,” said DaSilva “It goes a long way to keeping expenses down.”
