This website is intended as a comprehensive professional history. A condensed resume is available upon request.

Student Employee – Dormitory Housekeeping
Conard Hall, College Housing | Summer 1987
 

I worked as a student employee in dormitory housekeeping during the summer, preparing student housing for the fall semester. The work involved deep-cleaning dorm rooms and common areas to ensure the building was ready for student arrival. I was additionally responsible for maintaining the stairwells in Conard Hall.

Later in the summer, I was assigned responsibility for the guest rooms, which were maintained to hotel standards. This role required a higher level of precision, time management, and consistency.

Responsibilities & Skills:

Deep-cleaning dorm rooms prior to student move-in

Maintaining cleanliness of stairwells and common areas

Preparing guest rooms to hotel-quality standards

Making beds with fresh, wrinkle-free linens according to room plans

Setting up bedside items and room details as specified

Managing rapid room turnover between guest stays

Coordinating immediate laundry, trash removal, vacuuming, and reset

Using professional cleaning products (e.g., Soft Scrub, Murphy’s Oil Soap)

Floor care, including stripping and waxing
 

The Great Wax Floor vs. Dust Storm Incident
 

One afternoon we had spent most of our shift waxing the floors in Sittner Hall. By the end of the day, the floors were starting to dry, but they were supposed to cure for a full 24 hours. To help with that, all the doors and windows had been left open to keep the air moving.

As I was walking out at the end of the shift, chatting with my supervisor, we noticed a dust storm on the horizon—and it was moving fast.

We immediately turned around and ran back into the building to close windows before the storm hit. We split up, each taking one side of the building, which meant racing through four floors with roughly twenty rooms per floor. We didn’t manage to get every window closed before the storm arrived, but we closed most of them—and picked up extra help along the way as others realized what was happening.

The next day, there were a few rooms that had to be stripped and rewaxed. Still, it could have been far worse, and we were grateful we caught it when we did.