When Yomaria Rosado found a used condom lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway, she didn't think much of it. She put on her latex gloves, picked up the slimy mess, and threw it away.
Rosado has been a janitor at UB for four weeks now, and she probably already knows more about the student's personal activities than their own parents. The other day she found a bag of marijuana behind a washing machine.
"You'd be surprised what you see," Rosado said. "But it's college."
The standard day for a dormitory custodian begins at seven in the morning, pulling overflowing trash out of cans and tossing them into the dumpster. Sweeping and mopping up old food stains on the floors precedes restocking bathroom supplies and scrubbing toilets.
"The public bathrooms are the worst," said Barbara Kwandrans, a janitor in Goodyear Hall who has been on the staff for over 24 years.
Monday mornings after a weekend of partying and late night studying, the stairways and elevators are typically trashed. Negligent students have a way of leaving behind a trail in the form of snack wrappers and sticky spills.
Mark Jendrasik, a contracted janitor at UB for three years, wishes students would put more consideration into their actions while in class or at the library. He often finds food crushed into the carpets, trashcans kicked over, and cups of coffee that have fallen to the floor, left by perpetrators too lazy to pick them up.
"If I got paid enough and I had to do this, then that's fine," Jendrasik said. "But I don't get paid enough."
The UB Students Against Sweatshops organization is hoping to change that. They started Justice for Janitors, a program that works toward better wages and benefits for custodians, as well as increasing students' and faculty's respect for the work that they do.
"These are the people that make UB run," said Brenden Stepien, senior history major and a member of UBSAS.
Stepien said that SAS has played a big part in getting the university to switch from underpaid contracted janitors to unionized workers who receive fair pay and benefits.
"Their struggle is our struggle because we're workers too," he said.
Some union custodians, like Kwandrans, are fairly happy with their jobs. She said that the benefits are great, their stockrooms are always supplied, and the students treat her with respect.
"We really don't have too much trouble with them," Kwandrans said.
Taking into account the amount of trash that can accumulate in high-traffic areas like the Student Union, it is understandable that the janitors sometimes have trouble keeping up, and these areas aren't always sparkling clean.
"They do a good job with the amount of people that there are," said Lydia Goldstein, a freshman undecided major.
When custodians see saint-like students who show responsibility for there own messes, they are more than grateful.
"It makes it easier for us when they cooperate," Kwandrans said.
Most students agree that it's part of the job description of custodial work to clean up spills, take out trash, and keep the buildings relatively neat. But students realize that they are putting extra stress on the janitors when careless activities create unnecessary litter.
"The bathrooms get trashed from people drinking," said Chris Mcallister, a sophomore undecided major. "That's overboard. Students should have to clean it up."
While some janitors take the position that their job is not to clean up after the students' messes like a mother of a spoiled kid, Rosado tries to keep a more realistic state of mind.
"If you guys don't do what you do, I don't have a job," she said.
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
