Working Through A Pandemic

BY BRIAN GLASER

AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SENT STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF home from Haverford, there were approximately 130 international students and others who couldn’t easily leave their campus housing. The College quickly put together a plan to continue housing this group of students, which included providing essential services like dining, maintenance, housekeeping, and security—all while keeping the students and those essential workers safe and healthy.

“It’s been a complete change in how we operate,” says Director of Facilities Don Campbell, who oversees Haverford’s maintenance, housekeeping, and grounds operations. “Pretty much all of our work takes place on campus, so my housekeepers and groundskeepers can’t work from home.” Campbell took some key actions right from the start: making sure every member of his staff was trained to sanitize spaces and equipment, instituting strict face-covering and social-distancing rules, and working with his staff to map out the things that needed to be done and the things that could be set aside.

Dining Center, which provided takeout meals to the 130 students who remained on campus. Reimagining shifts and schedules to allow for minimal physical interaction while also providing necessary services in a safe manner has been a big challenge across multiple departments. Among the questions for Executive Director of Dining Services Bernadette Chung-Templeton: How do we offer enough of the basics using minimal crews? And when they are working, how do we keep them six feet apart? “It’s a kind of Rubik’s cube,” she says, “but we’re doing it!” The entire system for providing food had to be reimagined. Three meals have been reduced to two (brunch and dinner), and, to maintain state-mandated social distancing, they are takeout only.

Students and servers are separated by six feet and a barrier, and each order is put together with a bottled drink and plastic-wrapped cutlery, then placed in a pickup area. The staff is providing all of the food these students need, with a focus on nutrition and a side of community. Chung-Templeton worries about the isolation students are feeling while being confined to their dorm rooms and taking classesonline. “They’re in their own room. They’re away from their families,” she says. “But we can still talk to them and engage with them and say hello. The dining staff can be their ‘campus family,’ and we make sure they know we’re here to provide for them.”

And while making all the changes necessary for working in the midst of a pandemic has been a challenge, Dining Services General Manager Tom Mitchell notes that he’s seeing a positive side, too. “Everyone is coming together for the common goal, and it’s brought my team closer together,” he says.

That team was further challenged in late April, when a Dining Center worker tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The employee, whose symptoms were mild, quarantined at home and, as a precaution, coworkers who had been in contact with the employee were asked to remain off campus for 14 days and to self-quarantine. Given the many safety measures instituted by Dining Services, the College believes it is unlikely that any patron was exposed. At press time, no additional cases had been reported.

Following state-mandated social distancing rules on campus has been somewhat easier for departments that work mostly outside. Carol Wagner is a staff horticulturalist who is one of four people in a rotation of 7-9 a.m. shifts focused on watering in the greenhouses and checking the campus for downed trees or other safety hazards caused by wind and storms. She notes that this is a big reduction in the normal work her crew would be doing. “We’re not going around and weeding,” she says. “We’re not spraying. We’re not mulching or edging. We’re doing the bare minimum.”

But she also gets to help keep those who have gone home stay connected to the campus: “We take pictures on our phones of what’s blooming or might look interesting, things people want to see, and we post them on the Arboretum webpage or Instagram.”

The college’s housekeeping staff works mainly indoors, but the empty campus makes it much easier for them to stay safe while still working. “The biggest factor is not having the kids there,” says Sandy Gaspari, a supervisor in Housekeeping. “The trash is minimal, the use of the bathrooms is minimal, which makes it easier to maintain.” Spaces like the Field House and gyms aren’t being used, which reduces the number of buildings housekeepers need to enter.

On the other hand, she notes that her department is cleaning every touchpoint in the dorms where students are in residence—so light switches, keyboards, and other high-touch surfaces are getting extra attention.

Building maintenance is getting a similar approach, with crucial operations like boiler upkeep getting full attention from smaller crews on longer rotations, and the reduced need for services like HVAC repairs keeping that work off the to-do list.

“Jobs that are very involved and require more than one person generally aren’t getting done,” says Boiler Operator Steve Pajak. “The big jobs are getting pushed back, and we haven’t had emergencies come up yet.” He notes that the nature of his regular work on the boilers makes it easy to practice safety protocols and social distancing: “President Raymond mandates keeping a mask on,” he notes. “I work with gloves on the whole time, and I don’t leave the boiler room when I’m on campus.”

Also still on the job is the Safety and Security team, which is patrolling the campus with smaller shifts and at an appropriate distance from each other and those they encounter. As the officers continue to keep an eye out, they’re often the only people looking in on buildings and equipment that would normally be watched over by students and faculty.

For example, Safety and Security Officer George Johnson stopped a burglary in progress at the VCAM facility that resulted in arrests and the recovery of property. And Officer Beth Pezzano was patrolling in Sharpless when she noticed that an ultracold freezer was malfunctioning, jeopardizing biological specimens that can’t be easily replaced. Pezzano contacted Assistant Professor of Biology Kristen Whalen, who was able to come to campus and save the materials. “Her vigilance and quick thinking to check freezer temperatures in Sharpless during her rounds saved my research program and countless hours of research by students and my postdoctoral investigator and technician,” said Whalen. “It is truly hard to articulate how immensely grateful I am to her.”

While the different departments have developed different strategies for providing crucial services to the students still on campus, and for maintaining buildings and grounds and monitoring security, they all agree on the biggest thing missing from their workdays: the energy and activity that comes from having Haverford’s 1,353 students, as well as faculty and staff, physically on campus.

“It’s way too quiet!” says Gaspari. “It’s eerie at times because it’s so quiet. That’s the biggest difference, not having the hustle and bustle.”

Brian Glaser is a N.J.-based writer and editor. He is an ex-Philadelphia and NYC resident whose work has appeared in print and online venues including The New York Times, the PW, Baristanet, and the School of Visual Arts alumni magazine.