An overall lack of employees in the physical plant at NIU has caused an overload of work orders, and some describe the problem as getting serious.

Keith Strutz, superintendent of building services, has lost ten janitorial positions in the last three years due to continual budget cuts, he said. Strutz said, that 10 to 12 years ago there were about 50 additional positions as compared with today’s present workforce. He described the problem by saying, “We’re getting killed with work.”

Reports of broken shower heads and leaking toilets in dormitories have gone unrepaired for weeks. Professors and secretaries also have encountered similar delays in their work order requests.

Edward O’Donnell, superintendent of the physical plant, said he spends approximately three to four hours a day on the phone dealing with such problems.

O’Donnell explained one reason for the problem is that the plant relies on a priority system regarding work orders dealing with health and safety concerns first. He said the system is the fairest possible and the irate callers usually understand the extensiveness of the 4,349 work orders that have yet to be fulfilled. These orders total about 20,080 hours of work, he said. Last year at this time O’Donnell said he had only 2,000 work orders.

The overload in campus repairs results from aging buildings, faulty plumbing and old fire alarm systems that need to be replaced. The predominant cause of disrepair, O’Donnell said, is an overall lack of employees to take preventative maintenance measures.

O’Donnell was forced to lay off seven full-tme craftsmen in 1981 and continues to spend each day distinguishing between repairs under the health and safety category and those repairs that simply cause inconvience, he said.

Due to the aging electrical system and food service equipment that is continually wearing out, O’Donnell said, “Grant and Stevenson Towers are taking up a much more significant amount of time these days than previously.”

Diane Shaffer, office manager of Grant North, said she has noticed that work orders for screen repairs submitted last semester have yet to be completed.

O’Donnell said he considers it ironic that NIU is the second largest univesity in the state and has acquired three buildings in the last five years – the Engineering Building, the Palmer Music Buidings and the Art Annex – and has yet to allocate more money to his department for hiring additional employees to deal with the increased amount of building maintenance.