Helping Custodial Staff Clean San Diego State Campus

Contributed By Kaivac

“As a student who has lived on San Diego State University's campus for the bulk of two years and attended class in a majority of buildings on campus, I’ll admit that we were pretty filthy – and inconsiderate,” writes Ryan Hardison, senior staff writer for The Daily Aztec, San Diego State University’s independent student newspaper. "This makes the thankless job of anyone who has to clean up our mess a difficult and often repetitive one.”

Hardison says that even though most students at the school are attending classes online, “the work of keeping the campus clean must go on and has even become more difficult in the wake of enhanced cleaning protocols. [Further,] with a long list of daily assignments already entrusted to the school’s Custodial Services department, the pandemic has only heightened their responsibilities.”

Hardison points out that since the pandemic, and due to budget cuts, the custodial department has been reduced from 100 full-time employees to 80. “With 20 fewer custodians, the custodial department has had to adjust individual cleaning assignments to a current workload that would still be equal to what they performed pre-pandemic," he wrote.

In other words, the 80 remaining cleaning workers are now expected to handle the same cleaning duties that once were handled by 100 workers.

Hardison writes that to accomplish this, “the entire custodial department has really had to step up their efforts and is working hard to keep everyone that does come onto the campus safe.”

One way they have managed to accomplish this is by recently purchasing 25 Kaivac No-Touch Cleaning systems. These were acquired, according to Hardison, “to help increase campus cleaning, deal with fewer cleaning workers, and the [pandemic] outbreak."

With fewer custodial workers, selecting the Kaivac No-Touch Cleaning system was likely an excellent idea for several reasons. According to ISSA, the worldwide cleaning association, a “spray-and-vac" system, such as the Kaivac no-touch cleaning system can cut cleaning times from one-third to one-half. This means more cleaning tasks can be completed, with fewer workers, in a shorter amount of time.

Additionally, according to Kaivac’s Matt Morrison, “studies have found that Kaivac [no-touch cleaning] systems clean up to 30 times more effectively [when] compared to traditional cleaning methods.”

For those new to spray-and-vac cleaning, these systems apply cleaning solution directly to surfaces. Those same surfaces are then rinsed clean by the machine. After that, all moisture and contaminants are vacuumed up, allowing the just-cleaned area to be reopened for use.

Hardison says the school now uses the no-touch cleaning machines in “all the [campus] buildings and sports facilities the custodial services now cleans as well as in garages."

"I know when students are eventually given the all-clear to return to campus at full capacity, our custodial department will continue providing students with a safe and healthy place to learn.”

The Kaivac No-Touch Cleaning systems no doubt will be playing a key role in making that happen.