Most students are asleep in their dorm rooms at 3 a.m., but somewhere on campus a phone is ringing. Who is going to answer the call?

For many students, the cleaning and maintenance of their residence halls goes generally unheeded, but when messes are made during off hours, the University is bound by health and safety regulations to clean them up immediately—which often requires maintenance staff members to come to campus at all hours of the early morning.

“I think that a lot of students who go out and get drunk and then come back and make a mess don’t really have an excuse,” said Jon Connary, Residential Life Area Coordinator. “Their fun does not make them exempt from responsibility.”

To facilitate the process of late night residence hall maintenance, a stringent set of procedures must be followed. Jeff Miller, associate director of Physical Plant, explained that when a night call is placed Public Safety is first to respond and then subsequent calls are made to maintenance personnel in their homes.

Although the University frequently delegates residence hall cleanup to outside staff, both Connary and Miller stated that the best-case scenario is finding out which students created the disturbances, and then having them clean the violated areas. Connary admits that this aim is often too idealistic, however, especially in residence halls in which individual violations are difficult to isolate.

While University policy emphasizes timely cleanup—because of the risk of blood-born pathogens in bodily fluids—students point out that countless messes slip through the cracks. It appears these cleaning inconsistencies may result from residents not being completely clear on their own maintenance responsibilities.

“In Fauver last year there was [vomit] in the girls’ bathroom for a full two or three weeks,” said Jennifer Spero ’11.

Although those students are not fined when maintenance staff members are called out of their beds to make campus house calls, fines do come into play when physical damages are committed.

“If significant amounts of damage are found within residence halls, we have the ability to charge the inhabitants of the floor where the damage occurred,” Miller said.

Administrators agree that more emphasis must be placed on student accountability and consciousness, specifically that residence hall members should assume responsibility not only for their own actions but for those of their community.

Ultimately, the single aspect of residence hall maintenance that both administrators and students agree needs work is the resident-maintenance personnel relationship.

“It would be nice if we were given some direction on [relationships with the cleaning staff] because it is awkward not knowing what to do when they are constantly in your home,” said Allegra Stout ’12.

While residents are generally concerned about their community spaces, Connary questioned the damages that continue to occur in residence halls.

“We have many students that are very concerned with the maintenance staff’s working rights and hours, but they still go ahead and make messes,” Connary said. “It seems almost hypocritical to me.”