Meet your maintence workers

Biggest changes at CWU over the years: A drop in student enrollment, there’s always a big turnover and a lot of new buildings have been built since I’ve been here.

Favorite memories on campus: Probably our potlucks, our get-togethers, our Christmas gatherings and holiday gatherings. Everybody gets together and we can all talk. I’m in this building [Bouillon] for eight hours, so I don’t get to talk to other custodians until we’re all together.

Favorite feature of campus: The Japanese garden. I think it’s so pretty, my grandkids love it. And the greenhouse, I like when they open it on Fridays. They have plants that you can buy, they’re by donation. My first time there years ago, I got my daughter like six of the plants and I put them in this pot. The plants were really little, but now it’s just this huge, beautiful plant. They’re all different, one’s a spider plant that hung, and the ones in the back were tall.

What do you wish more students knew: How to clean up after themselves, and how to be more polite. I’m always saying good morning, and they don’t say anything.

If you were granted three wishes, what would they be:

I would win the big lottery. I would buy my son a house, give money to my daughter and pay off my house, and then I would probably buy a house or condo in Hawaii. I would retire, buy a new car and live a happy, healthy life.

Biggest challenges you’ve overcome in life: Having my kids and grandkids was a challenge, but I loved it. My husband is a big kid and he’s a challenge. Another challenge is making my garden bigger and better every year. Last year I had 26 tomato plants, pumpkins, watermelon, squash, zucchini, snap peas, all your onions (white, yellow, red), radishes, bell peppers, you name it. I bring some and put them on a table downstairs, so when they walk in [to Bouillon], I have a basket and it’s just full of fresh produce, and then our building enjoys it.

Sherry Watt Years at Cwu: 15

Hometown: Phoenix, AZ

Weirdest thing you’ve seen while on the job: Students have put poop in a bag and stuck it in the microwave and it exploded. That was the weirdest. I saw some deer in front of the L and L building by the flags once.

Favorite memory on campus: When I was a kid, my dad and my brother and I would ride our bicycles around campus and we would dumpster dive. We would jump in the garbage cans to find cans to recycle, and I remember when they used to have the fountain going over by Shaw Smyser and McConnell.

Favorite place or thing on campus: One of my favorite spots is just this big field in front of Dean Hall, this bridge right over here. Sometimes I’ll go over there in the evening and just sit on the bridge, and in the evening at certain times of year, you can see the bats flying under. You see a couple bats just flying along the water catching bugs.

Favorite way to spend a day off: Hiking in the woods with my dog or making music with my band, the Ellensburg Blusers. My dog is an English silver lab. She’s my soulmate.

Best piece of advice: I tell this to my friends all the time. Three rules to life: one, stay hydrated. Two, have fun. Three, refer back to rule number one, because you’re probably not drinking enough water.

Hometown:Ellensburg, WA

Favorite part of the job: The connections that I make with all the people here.

Favorite part of campus: The SURC, because it has everything

Least favorite part of campus: The kids not cleaning up after themselves

Favorite memory while working at CWU: The people I’ve met here

Favorite extracurricular activity: Softball and golf

Weirdest thing you’ve seen at CWU: Shower poops. My boss warned me about this when training, and the next day, I saw it for the first time.

Three words to describe you: Smart, funny, humble

Best piece of advice: Enjoy life.

Best pieces of advice: Stay open-minded. Have more trust in people. Go out there and just do it.

Weirdest thing you’ve seen on the job: In high school, we played this game called fugitive, where the seniors are chasing the underclassmen and you have a destination point at night time, and you have to get from here to there without the seniors catching you. I remember my friend and I were sneaking along through the campus to get there, and we were just hunkered down in the shadows in the field over here, and the bridge was out of commission and there was a fence up, and we just see this wall of freshman hit the fence and try to climb over and escape these seniors.

Least favorite place on campus: Davies Hall, because that’s where we’ve had the most sewage explosions. Kind of traumatizing memories there a little bit.

What do you wish more students knew: The music building gets super busy and it gets trashed real quick, and I wish some of the students were more aware to pick up after themselves. It’s super helpful. I get it, though.

What’s on your bucket list: I really want to hike Mt. Stuart, because I go hiking all the time and I always see it, so it would be really cool to see the view from that vantage point.

If you could have one wish, what would it be: Less hate in the world.

What would you say to your younger self: Don’t spend your inheritance. I would have invested in Apple.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be: Prime rib

PersonalGary’s motto: Thank god it didn’t smell.

Gary Robertson Years at Cwu: 3

Hometown:Anaheim, CA