Over the last few weeks, the university has taken unprecedented measures to reduce the impact and spread of the novel coronavirus on campus. Students have transitioned to digital learning environments and nearly all faculty and staff are adjusting to remote working situations. UNT continues to work diligently to ensure that our campus community stays informed and safe. Visit healthalerts.unt.edu to find information about how UNT is working together through this global health crisis.
Essential personnel are reporting to campus to maintain critical business operations. Many of the essential staff are part of a team working to keep commonly used buildings clean and disinfected, and the university is increasing its cleaning and disinfecting processes. Custodial staff from both the Facilities and Housing departments are handling this situation.
“The staff understands the importance of what they do. While there is a level of anxiety in some we are moving forward and being supportive to the best of our ability,” said Assistant Director of Housing Custodial Peter Beaulieu.
In the Housing department, staff are wiping all surfaces in public areas twice daily in addition to normal daily cleaning in all restroom areas and public spaces. Staff are giving extra attention to door handles, dispensers, light switches and surfaces that get touched frequently. Additionally, staff are methodically conducting deep cleaning and disinfecting of vacant areas using an electrostatic cleaning system. For example, when the Welcome Center shut its doors, the Housing custodial team performed deep sanitation of the facility with the electrostatic system.
For non-housing areas, Facilities staff are also focusing their attention on wiping down public spaces like corridors, lobbies, and restrooms in the minimal amount of buildings that remain open for business. They are focusing attention on surfaces that are frequently touched. Crews are still removing trash in areas where faculty or staff may still be working but are not open to the public. For the safety of the crews, essential personnel are placing their trash receptacles in public hallways for servicing. This also helps focus the crew’s attention to areas where door handles and surfaces leading into offices need to be disinfected. Facilities crews are taking advantage of the reduced population on campus and strategically tackling projects to deep clean high-use areas in buildings such as carpets and using an electrostatic cleaning system to disinfect public spaces that are currently vacant such as classrooms and restrooms.
"We feel that we have met and exceeded our expectations regarding this challenge. We have been using a hospital-grade disinfectant, electrostatic sprayers, and pump sprayers to clean all the classrooms on campus. We have been targeting high traffic areas such as hallways, restrooms, classrooms, door handles and all frequently touched surfaces. We feel equipped and well-trained to respond to this pandemic," said Facilities Custodial Trainer Lynne Odell.
Both Housing and Facilities are working to continue this high level of service for the foreseeable future as our community continues to adjust to the dynamic public health situation.
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