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January 22, 2009

LETTERS

To the editor:

In response to the article in the Jan. 8 University Times,  “A Night in the Life”: We do know who needs to get the credit; maybe these managers should give the right custodians the credit for doing what should be done by 7 a.m. Why would Facilities allow these night managers to [say] the day shift takes the credit for the night turn’s work? THEY SHOULD, since they do night turn’s work.  

There have been plenty of days when we came in and had to ask [our daylight custodian] for soap, toilet paper or paper towels for the ladies’ room. This is not just on the 8th floor [of the Cathedral of Learning]; there are other floors that day shift has to put these items in the ladies’ and/or men’s room.  Right now there are spider webs in one of the stalls in the ladies’ bathroom; the floor was waxed in the ladies’ room without cleaning the floor. Sometimes hallways don’t get done for days and days. I understand some of the classrooms on the ground floor go undone until the day shift comes in. As far as I can tell no one is checking the work of the evening or night shift. This is a real slap in the face when [the night managers in the article] stated that “day shift takes credit for evening/night shift’s work,” when they REALLY are doing evening and night shift’s work. We know our custodians in the Cathedral get their work done in the day and some of night shift’s work.  

Charlotte Wilson-Moran
Administrative Assistant
Office of the Provost

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Joseph LaRotonda, assistant manager for custodial services in Facilities Management, replied:

I am deeply saddened to learn that a comment I made in your Jan. 8, 2009, edition was construed as malicious in nature. I apologize to anyone who interpreted it that way. The nature and context of my statement was light-hearted and humorous and in no way malicious.

 Everyone in Facilities Management works hard toward one goal as a whole: That is to provide a clean and safe environment for our employees, the University staff and community. We do this by working together with a checks-and-balance system making corrections as they are found by our custodial staff, supervisors and management staff no matter what shift has the primary responsibility.

 I guess I should have started the interview for the initial article with: My comments, as they say on television editorials, do not reflect that of the station or, in this case, that of the Facilities Management department.

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Letters can be sent by e-mail to njbrown@pitt.edu or by campus mail to 308 Bellefield Hall.

The University Times reserves the right to edit letters for clarity or length. Individuals are limited to two published letters per academic term. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication.


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