Classrooms have long been vacated for the evening.
It’s still hours before the University wakes from its collective slumber and once again fills the campus with a continuous flow of students and professors.
But at this late hour, a relatively unknown key cog in the operation of the University emerges from the shadows.
Armed with leaf blowers, rakes, brooms, cleaning fluids, chain saws and driving a Green Machine, the Grounds and Waste Management Department, housing staff and custodians work shifts that start anywhere between 9 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., cleaning the hardscape – which includes sidewalks and plazas – removing leaves, and cleaning classrooms, lecture halls and dormitories.
As you wander through campus after a late night of studying or partying, or are on your way to an early class, you might a glimpse of staff members on break, see closets full of vacuum cleaners and cleaning supplies and find “careful wet floor/cuidado piso mojado” signs, all remnants of the previous night’s work.
These three departments are responsible for everything from forestry, integrated pest management, irrigation, recycling and trash removal to dormitory cleanups and a salt-reduction initiative, which take place at all hours of the day. And despite the seemingly simple nature of these tasks, the people who complete them are far from ordinary.
“There is a lot of hidden expertise,” said John Lawter, the director of Grounds and Waste Management. “The people you see doing manual labor around campus may have degrees ranging from B.A.s to Ph.D.s.”
Some work in the middle of the night because they don’t mind the hours. Some work in the dorms because of the interactions they have with students. Others choose to work outdoors because they love being outside.
Art Grissom, the head forester in the grounds department, doing tree trimming and maintenance 70 feet in the air is a continuation of a childhood spent on a farm, during which he grew to love the outdoors. While he works with his crew members, all of whom are certified arbists, to keep campus trees healthy, other employees prefer to have their feet firmly on the ground, cleaning the University’s interiors.
At 4 a.m., Sharon Bailey starts work, usually on the first floor of Angell Hall. A 15-year employee, she has worked in Mason, Tisch and Haven Halls and has students tell her that the building looks “really nice.”
“That just makes your day and boosts us up,” Bailey said.
As Bailey starts work, Fred Voss’ workday begins to wind down. The twenty-year University employee loves the leaves on campus and spends his nights – from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. – driving a sidewalk sweeper known as the Green Machine through campus. Voss and his Green Machine pick up leaves, cigarette butts and small pieces of glass while making a few interesting acquaintances along the way.
“Working here at the University of Michigan is pretty interesting,” Voss said. “You never know who you’re going to meet.”
In the two decades that he has worked at the University, Voss has had his fair share of unusual and unexpected encounters. These meetings include bicyclists dressed as gorillas and a man walking through the Diag wearing slippers and a bathrobe. More than the contact he has with many different people and characters, he is proud of the role he plays in making campus both clean and safe and about the advances grounds has made, especially their efforts “to be a green as we can.”
As the end of his shifts nears, Voss drives away into the night, saying to himself “lions and tigers and bears oh my” as he passes through the dark, deserted campus – just one of many University employees working behind the scenes.