Submitted by Professor Robert T Mann.
Ask any random faculty member, “When is the last time you had your office vacuumed?” I know it may seem a small matter, getting your floor cleaned of the dust, dirt, crumbs, insects, and other detritus that accumulates over months or years. But if someone asked me that question, I’d have to say, “Never.” Or at least, “My office floor has never been vacuumed by anyone else but me.”
You see, the deep state budget cuts to higher education during the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal did lots of damage to LSU, damaged that’s never been repaired. Faculty were laid off, courses canceled, degree programs were nixed, and the campus maintenance staff was decimated. In fact, LSU Facility Services took the brunt of the budget cuts on this campus.
It was about three or four years ago that it occurred to me that my office carpet hadn’t been cleaned in years, if ever. Maybe that’s why my allergies were so bad. Whatever the case, I realized that if I ever wanted my office vacuumed again, I’d need to do it myself. So, I went to Walmart and, using my own money, I bought a vacuum cleaner. Now, about once a month, I clean my office. I dust the furniture and vacuum the floor.
It’s not because the maintenance staff in my building are lazy. It’s because they are overworked. They don’t have the time to clean offices. It’s up to us now to clean our own offices.
All across campus, the repair and maintenance of the LSU campus has been neglected in thousand different ways because the university simply cannot afford to do so. Look more closely when you enter buildings around campus. Pay attention to how shabby, run down, and grimy so much of LSU’s buildings are. Pay attention to the streets. They’re full of potholes. The sidewalks are often a patchwork quilt of materials.
I can’t patch the roads and I cannot scrub the buildings. What I can do is buy my own vacuum and clean my own office floor. I don’t think such work is beneath me, and I really don’t mind it that much. But I do wonder if faculty at other major state universities are doing the same. I think they’re probably not.