Let's do right by our janitors

I have been a Tufts student and community member since the fall of 1999. During this period of time I have undergone enormous change, adversity, successes and many struggles, but one thing has remained very consistent: no matter what difficulty I have encountered, the Tufts community of students and faculty has been there to offer compassion, patience, and guidance. I believe that many students can relate to what I am saying and are very grateful to this institution for many things.

It is precisely because of my respect for this community that I have been so disillusioned by the treatment of our janitors. I would be surprised to learn of any Tufts student who did not acknowledge and appreciate the important role that our custodians play. These are individuals who keep our facilities functioning at the highest levels by doing the necessary and often disgusting grunt work that we as students and faculty are privileged not to do.

I am sure every student can remember at least one time when their residence hall was left in a nasty state due to immaturity, whether alcohol-induced or not. How often did the students responsible clean up the AI Steak Sauce they exploded on the wall, the vomit that they deposited in the hallway, or the toilet that they clogged up and flooded?

It is enough that our students make the jobs of the janitors extremely difficult and gruesome. What is totally unacceptable is the ingratitude and callousness that we show to the janitors by not paying them a living wage, offering no paid sick days, denying part-time workers healthcare benefits, and severely limiting the familial health care of full-time workers. This is not a Tufts administration problem, this is a Tufts problem.

As community members, we all must stand up for the most vulnerable in our community. The janitors are not insignificant. The work they do is essential. We must honor their work, honor their importance to our lives, and honor their basic human desire to provide for their families with reasonable security.

No Tufts employees should have to live in fear because their job is insecure. No Tufts employees should have to compromise their health to come in when they are sick because they will lose a paycheck otherwise. No Tufts employees should have children without healthcare.

Now, the university may counter that the custodians are not Tufts employees. As of 1994, the janitors lost their status as school employees and Tufts hired an outsourcing firm that employs the janitors. This switch, which was done for economic reasons, does not shift the responsibility of our community to do right by the janitors.

I am not hyping up the rough treatment of our custodial staff. Their pay is significantly less than the pay of janitors at other universities in Boston, and their benefits packages and job security are similarly lacking. Let's step up as a community and do the right thing. Let's demand that the janitors be treated like the valued members of this community that they are. Let's bestow upon them the kind of warmth, compassion, and kindness that we show to each other day in and day out. It will be well worth the relatively minimal cost.

Michael Pollak is a senior majoring in Comparative Religions