Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 43

custodian. Outsourced staff doing
Calvin's job would not likely be
invested in the university to the extent
that they would offer insights that
could improve the quality of life for all
campus stakeholders.
	 Custodians' contributions as
cleaners as well as educators were
far more pervasive than I imagined
prior to my fieldwork. I remember the
example of Vida, another custodian at
Compton University. She was cleaning
a residence hall suite bathroom when
a male resident entered, dropped his
pants, and began peeing in a nearby
urinal. Without flinching, she looked
at him and said, "Would you do this
in front of your mom?" Her question
shocked him, and the inappropriate
behavior ceased.
	 Often custodians like Calvin
and Vida perform externally defined
subculture scripts such as working
hard, remembering that the customer
is always right, and acquiescing to the
more powerful. In the hierarchical
world in which most custodians
work, to grin and bear it (or have to
watch others bare it in the case of
Vida) represents a course of least
resistance. Yet these two custodians
were exceptions. Although their job
title was "custodian," they acted as
educators who challenged conventional
wisdom about what custodians do
and who possesses wisdom on college
campuses.
	 Custodians' support for the
individuals whose spaces they cleaned
is inspiring. Their desire to go above
and beyond and to support others is
pervasive. Ajla exemplified this spirit
when discussing her relationship with
residence hall students. "I talked to
the kids. When the parents drop the
kids off, I kind of tell them like, 'Don't
worry I'm going to take care of them.'
I make sure they do what they're
supposed to do," she says. "This year
I have wonderful kids. I do. They are

42

TALKING STICK

so open and so bright and so nice.
They also are neat and clean. I cook
for them, like around the holidays. I
cook at home and then I bring them in
some Bosnian food. They love it."
	 The custodial staff can also serve
as a liaison between the campus and
the surrounding communities. Most
universities experience town/gown
tensions that strain the relationship
between the university community
and the larger municipality in which
the campus resides. At Harrison
University (another pseudonym),
a rural public university, most

. . . outsourcing
upends the work
lives of exemplary
employees who
are loyal to their
universities
and almost
always results
in serious fiscal
consequences for
those staff.

custodians resided in nearby counties.
Hiring generations of locals was the
norm. Nina, a custodian I met through
my work, was a second-generation
custodian; her father had worked in
the student center for 15 years before
becoming ill and retiring. Her mom
worked in the residence halls as a
food preparer. Both parents persuaded
Nina that the university's insurance
and tuition benefits made the dirty job
desirable. She took them at their word
and, throughout her career, acted as an
unofficial ambassador, promoting the
university to family and friends who
historically were skeptical about its
commitment to them. Having locals
who were loyal to their universities
did much to improve town/gown
relationships.

Hauck, when in 1998 Southampton
College chose to contract out its
custodial work, it "instigated a crisis
concerning the structure and nature
of the entire campus community . .
. The outsourcing of custodial work
suddenly forced students, faculty,
and staff to question what kind of
community the college was and ought
to be; what kind of responsibilities an
institution has to its employees and
the surrounding community; and what
role the students and other campus
groups should play in the decisionmaking process that impacts their
surroundings."

	 The current economics of higher
education will raise a number of
complex questions that universities
should explicitly pose and then
consider by facilitating campuswide discussions to solicit multiple
perspectives. Do the benefits of inhouse custodians - who go beyond
cleaning to assume roles of educators,
ambassadors, surrogate parents,
student advocates, health monitors,
and liaisons - offset cost savings that
would likely result from outsourcing
custodial services? Is the mission of
the university to provide opportunities
exclusively for students or for all
community members? What does
it mean to be a socially responsible
university? What principles should
guide the allocation of scarce resources
in severe economic times? Questions
such as these need to be posed handin-hand with questions such as, "Will
outsourcing result in budget savings?"

	 The question of whether a campus
is better served by a feudal army or
an in-house staff is one a number of
campuses must consider. If asked, my
response to this question necessitates
a greater clarity about what we mean
by "better." What I learned as a result
of my fieldwork was that staff such
as Ludmila, Calvin, Chee-Chee, Vida,
Ajla, and Nina do not represent
old-fashioned or out-of-date modes
of providing services. Instead, these
progressive educators reveal ways to
"be better" and remind us of the need
for campuses to engage in economic,
political, and moral reflections that

challenge and sometimes upend
sacred managerial principles such as
cutting costs. Discussion on the merits
of matters such as outsourcing, while
likely complicated and contentious
in the short run, can forge long-term
alliances and lead to a more democratic
campus community. Whatever those
costs may be, I would argue it is
money well spent. 
Peter Magolda is professor emeritus in the
Department of Educational Leadership at
Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

 magoldpm@me.com

Shape the

Inspired

®

CBORD ad

	 These are the types of questions
that lack clear-cut answers and require
substantial introspection. As Matthew
Ruben described in the book Campus,
Inc.: Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower,
edited by Geoffry White and Flannery

MONADNOCK HALL | SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY
mackeymitchell.com

2018 Talking Stick ads.indd 4

JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2018

43

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Talking Stick - January/February 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - January/February 2018

Talking Stick - January/February 2018
Contents
Vision
Just In
Calendar
Your ACUHO-I
Transitions
Res Life
Facilities
Business Operations
The Outsourcing Question
Born to Be Wild
Conversations
First Takes
Around Student Affairs
New Members
Snapshot
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Intro
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Talking Stick - January/February 2018
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Cover2
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 1
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 2
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Contents
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 4
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 5
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 6
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 7
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Vision
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 9
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Just In
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 11
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 12
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 13
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 14
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 15
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 16
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 17
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Calendar
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 19
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Your ACUHO-I
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 21
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Transitions
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 23
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Res Life
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 25
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 26
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 27
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Facilities
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 29
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 30
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 31
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Business Operations
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 33
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 34
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 35
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - The Outsourcing Question
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 37
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 38
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 39
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 40
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 41
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 42
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 43
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Born to Be Wild
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 45
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 46
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 47
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 48
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 49
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 50
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 51
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Conversations
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 53
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 54
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 55
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - First Takes
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Around Student Affairs
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - 58
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - New Members
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Snapshot
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Cover3
Talking Stick - January/February 2018 - Cover4
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