Every morning, residence hall residents wake up to a freshly-cleaned bathroom and empty garbage cans.

NIU’s building services’ members work to keep classrooms, living and public areas clean.

“We clean classrooms and offices, vacuum and shampoo, clean bathrooms, the field house, the windows – we cover a variety of cleaning jobs,” said Barbara Coleman, supervisor of building services.

Human resources’ official job description of a level-one building service worker includes the “routine cleaning and upkeep of buildings,” along with a myriad of other responsibilities.

Coleman said a maintenance employee has many other delegations, but there are limits.

“We don’t do anything that would be considered maid work, like making beds,” Coleman said.

Building service worker Stanley Todd, who is responsible for floors seven, eight and nine in Stevenson South B Tower, said most students respect the maintenance staff employees.

“My kids on my floors are great, I couldn’t ask for nicer kids … I am respected, if you give these students the respect that they deserve, and I think I do, they’ll give it back,” Todd said.

The NIU Human Resources Web site lists the hourly wage for a building service worker at a minimum of $11.26 an hour. Coleman said the pay could vary from person to person.

“They start off at $10.50 an hour, but it goes all the way up to $16 an hour,” Coleman said. “It depends, all janitors don’t make the same. The years of service is part of the consideration.”

Despite difficulties of the job, many employees have remained with NIU years after initial employment.

“Most of our people are long-term, once they get here they stay here,” Coleman said.