University custodians call campus ‘home’

This is the second in a seven-part series about the people and departments who work behind the scenes to make Boston University function.

Many Boston University students may not know how much the custodians at the university consider it a home as much as they do.

To custodian Dave Soper, working at the university – now for the 27th year – is a way to balance out other aspects of his life.

“Work is great because my parents are getting older, my dad has Alzheimer’s,” he said.

“Different issues in life actually work as great therapy. I really appreciate work – it’s the place where I can go and just work.”

In addition to having a wife and 8-year-old son, Soper said he is also a practicing Buddhist and chants each morning and night.

“I even chant while I’m at work,” he said. “I chant not to be judgmental.”

Custodian Stephen Freitas, who has worked at BU for six months, said the job of a custodian is very simple, but very necessary.

“We keep the place clean,” he said. “And we make sure to take care of anything students need.”

Keeping the students at BU happy in order to promote their studies is one of the best things custodians can do, Soper said.

“There’s a lot of pressure here at BU,” he said. “The expectations are very high. It’s a very good school, so there’s a lot of competition. So if you say ‘Hi’ and keep the place really clean, you try to help them out wherever you can.”

College of Engineering freshman Kevan Desai said the custodians are very friendly because of their outgoing attitudes.

“They always try to talk to you,” he said. “They always make a point to say ‘Hi’ in the morning. If they’re cleaning, I lift my feet so they can clean underneath them.”

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Colin Averill said the custodians do a good job of cleaning, but students should be more responsible for the messes they make.

“[The custodians] are friendly and they clean well,” he said. “I feel bad whenever anyone is picking up my stuff, and that’s their job. I feel like that’s wrong – people should be able to pick up after themselves.”

Warren Towers custodians do an especially good job because of the constant flow of people in the dormitory, Averill said.

“This is where you live,” he said. “You feel dirty in general, and it’s no good. But if there were no janitors here, this would be the most disgusting place on earth.”

Soper also said Warren Towers is a difficult place for a custodian to work, but a clean environment makes a big difference.

“[Warren Towers] is pretty demanding,” he said. “Every place is, but you can’t let things slide here. You really have to make an effort to be on top of it, because if you let things slide, it just gets really ugly.”

One of the reasons that the environment at BU is not hostile is because of the student-custodian relationship, Soper said.

“It’s very important to be respectful to students and realize that without the students here, we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “If they make a mess, it’s OK – because if they were all perfect, half of us would be working here. There’s sort of a balance there. You do the best to keep the place as clean as you can.”

The relationship between the students and custodians makes it more comfortable for relaxed interactions, Soper said.

“I think it’s really important to say ‘Good morning,'” he said. “It’s really important to be upbeat because you can see, in the students, the pressure. It’s hard to talk to them a whole lot, because you’re working, but it’s important to be a happy person, because the students here have a lot of pressure.”

Many of the custodians find BU a comfortable place to work because of the benefits offered, Soper said.

“It’s a fascinating place to work,” he said. “We get some great benefits here that other places don’t even have – like vacation time, personal time, sick time and they have a pretty good health insurance policy. A lot of places don’t really give you all that today.”

Soper said although their jobs are not as formal as others, they make a very direct impact on the way students get work done where they live.

“We’re not their parents, we’re not their professors – we’re the custodians,” he said. “We keep the place clean, and it’s very important to encourage them to do their studies. I think if we keep the place clean, they appreciate that. I think they really notice that we work.”

Desai said sometimes the custodians act as parents in a place where college students are independent.

“I think that the students need the custodians more than the custodians need us,” he said. “Since we’re simply teenagers away from home – that encourages a lot of non-cleanliness. The custodians almost act as our parents, cleaning up our messes.”

Freitas said as a custodian “you feel like a father or a mother.”

“You have to clean up after them,” he said. “Some kids are cleaner than others. It’s like each floor is a different kid.”

Desai said he always knows when the custodians came to clean because the place always looks nicer.

“I notice subtle changes,” he said. “Like if I walk in the bathroom in the morning, the sinks are much cleaner than the night before, and so are the halls.”

Freitas said he knows when students notice the cleanliness because of their responses.

“They notice it because they say ‘Thank you,'” he said.