Features Reporter
Photo by Chris Clark
By 7 a.m. every Thursday morning, the custodial office in the basement of the Little Mavs Learning Center is already abuzz with lighthearted chatter, peppy morning-radio music and the constant beeps, clicks and muffled voices that stream through dozens of black walkie talkies.
As she does every weekday morning, Aimee McBroom, 20, arrives at the office a few minutes before seven, her brown hair pulled up in a ponytail. The sleeves of her dark green shirt are rolled up neatly to her biceps, and the logo above her left front pocket reads, “Colorado Mesa University Facilities Services.”
On an otherwise quiet campus, the steady jangle of keys on her hip and the intermittent voices on the radio in her hand follow McBroom as she walks past building after building, making her way across campus to the Orchard Avenue Apartments.
A resident of the apartments, McBroom is also responsible for maintaining them. She spends 20 hours a week cleaning windows, clearing clutter out of the halls and laundry rooms, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming and “chasing black marks off the walls.”
“I discovered that cleaning is ridiculously therapeutic,” McBroom said. “I can be stressing about school or family or whatever, and about 20 minutes into my shift, that all just disappears.”
McBroom started her job as a student custodian at the end of the Spring 2013 semester and spent the summer deep cleaning dorm rooms throughout campus. Just a few months later, the sophomore Mass Communication major is now the only student employee on campus in charge of cleaning her very own building.
McBroom credits Vicki Baker, the custodial team member she worked with all summer, with instilling in her the sense of “thoroughness” necessary to clean an entire building on her own.
“I discovered that cleaning is ridiculously therapeutic.” – Aimee McBroom, Student Custodian
“She taught me to walk into a room and look up at the ceiling, then work my way down to light fixtures, vents, the whole nine yards,” McBroom said. “Only now I have a thing with carpets. I don’t even look at the floor when I’m walking because I know a stain is going to pop out at me somewhere.
“Cleaning up after college students, let’s face it, is not the greatest,” McBroom said.
In addition to good training, McBroom also had a bit of a head start. While in high school in Collbran. McBroom cleaned the church her family attended, first to raise money for mission trips and later on to help support herself.
Independence, work ethic, professionalism and task-orientedness are all traits that can easily be attributed to McBroom. These ideals are also at the core of how Tom Ramler, Environmental and Custodial Services Manager for CMU, manages his department and his employees.
“It’s not just about custodial [services],” Ramler said. “It’s about teaching people how to survive in a growing workforce. We love to think this is a student-led, student-managed organization.”
Just as McBroom was quickly given her own building after proving herself a hard worker over the summer, Ramler ensures that his employees are given continuous opportunities to move up the ranks.
“Students aren’t just counting hours, they’re counting progress,” Ramler said.
Like Jesse Marquardt, Assistant Manager of Auxiliary Custodial Services. Before earning a bachelor’s degree in history from CMU, Marquardt started out as a student custodian. He then applied and was accepted as a full time custodian on campus. Upon graduating two years ago, Marquardt continued to pass evaluations, earn pay raises and accept promotions, landing him where he is today.
Through seemingly straightforward tasks like organizing a supply closet or scraping gum off the floors of the very buildings in which they attend class, student employees working within Facilities Services are learning invaluable skills about work and responsibility.
“The specific task is almost irrelevant,” Marquardt said. “These skills transcend any job.”
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