If you think EC 101 is hard, try cleaning up after the 12,000 rambunctious and unpredictable undergraduate students 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Then try doing it without anyone noticing.
That’s the job more than 600 Physical Plant employees take on year-round at Boston University, according to the organization’s associate vice president, James Keating.
“Everything we do as invisible as we can,” he said, “We’re doing a good job if we are not seen.”
The organization, Buildings and Grounds, or B’G, employs approximately 20 BU students during the school year. According to the B’G website, the staff operates “around the clock to maintain the appearance and operation of University properties and facilities.” They maintain more than 350 buildings around the campus.
Although Keating said all of the B’G operations are vital, they put extra emphasis on ensuring the University’s commencement runs without any glitches.
“When your parents and friends are at graduation, if it is messed up we can’t fix it for you … it’s done,” Keating said.
Twenty to twenty-five thousand people are present for the commencement, giving B’G more than just a handful of responsibilities.
As Army ROTC cadet David Whitt, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, returned from training yesterday at 7 a.m., he said he witnessed the B’G employees were already sweeping leaves, dirt and other debris from Bay State Road.
“I notice [the employees] all the time,” Whitt said. “I talk to them.”
Although student athletes and cadets catch sight of them, most students are asleep as the fleet sweeps through campus.
At this point in the season, the employees spend about 30 to 45 minutes cleaning the road in the morning. However, when falling leaves replaces the September sun, the workers find themselves with a slew of new responsibilities.
“When there are lots of leaves, we stay out here for a couple of hours,” said B’G employee Tony Pimentel, as he swept debris from the road.
The early morning clean-up is what Keating calls “part of our invisibility.”
“I know that they pretty much do a good maintenance job on everything,” said CAS junior Phil Roveto.
“If I were a B’G employee and I saw students walking around with cell phones and all other sorts of luxuries, I’d feel that the work that they put into something isn’t given a whole lot of social respect at BU,” Roveto said.
Social respect from cell phone toting students or not, the campus probably would not be the same place without the workers.
The BU campus is cleaner than many parts of the city because the school and B’G hold themselves to a higher standard, according to Keating.
“The reason is simple — to make this place look good for students, faculty and staff, and prospective students and their parents,” Keating said.
“There is a marketing component,” Keating said. “It is for everybody but if you take it from a new student’s perspective, the little parks and clean campus mean a lot.”
On top of landscaping duties, the Physical Plant responds to emergencies, monitors energy use, renovates dormitories and cleans buildings. Keating could not specify the amount of the B’G budget, but said it was “large.”
In 1989, when President George Bush Sr. and President Francois Mitterrand of France spoke at Commencement, B’G employees were there. In cases like that one, “Secret Service tells B’G what to do behind the scenes to set up precautions for the dignitaries,” Keating said.
Although B’G is faced with a multitude of responsibilities, it is a simple organization fundamentally, according to Keating.
“We’re nothing but a service organization,” he said. “No money is made, just spent.”
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