PHOTO BY ROSELINE JEAN-PIERRE
Janitor Beatriz Geronimo upkeeps the first floor of Rolling Hills Building C.
After more than two years as executive director of Facilities Management at NSU, Randall Seneff still hasn’t thrown away his dislike of trash.
“It’s really sad to me when we drive around campus, and I see litter in the parking lots. The Residence Hall Parking Garage is embarrassing. Sometimes I go over there on a Monday morning, and it seems like every kid that went to McDonald’s parked their car, took their bag and dumped it on the floor right next to their car,” Seneff said. “The first thing you see is what the campus looks like. And so we take great pride in ensuring that the campus looks good.”
Like Seneff, many people at the Office of Facilities Management are fighting against the rising tide of trash on campus.
“Every fall, there is a bit of an increase, but recently we’ve also been battling Nova High School students, who come on campus because we have a [new] attraction called Chick-fil-A, and the number of different things I see on the ground certainly has increased,” said Daniel J. Alfonso, executive vice president for Facilities, Public Safety, and Campus Services.
NSU’s Campus Support Building monitors how much trash enters its compactor, and its numbers validate the rising trend.
“When we use the August 2023 numbers versus the August 2024 numbers, we’re about 9.7% higher in the amount of trash. So almost a 10% increase in just one year for the amount of traffic there,” said Seth Mangasarian, NSU’s director of Physical Plant.
Alfonso’s desire to keep a clean campus goes beyond aesthetics. More trash leads to more rodents and wild animals, which poses a risk to everyone.
“When you have litter, it brings critters and other things,” Alfonso said. “A good example is some people feed the cats [on campus] and just plant [cat food] in the parking garage, and that attracts other animals, and it creates more opportunities for our students to interact with these wild animals.”
A crucial organizational tool for facilities management is the cleaning standards set by the Association of Physical Plant Administrators. APPA’s standards provide a set of five levels with benchmarks to ensure NSU’s custodians have clear targets to hit.
“We have an APPA level 2 standard that we apply across the campus. That makes sure we minimize trash [and] cans overflowing,” Mangasarian said.
The fight against trash is never-ending, but those working in facilities believe it’s a fight the community must join.
“I would say that we have an absolutely beautiful campus, and it takes everyone to help keep it that way,” Mangasarian said.
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