More than once, Eulla Locket has been hard at work keeping the Northern Arizona University campus clean when she happened upon a more pressing need: a student wandering around looking for a residence hall or classroom and having no idea where to go.
It’s not exactly in her job description, but she and her colleagues are committed to NAU’s mission of helping students succeed.
“When school starts up, a lot of students need direction on where to go, and we’ll stop what we’re doing to direct them to the right place,” the custodial area supervisor said. “I know how it feels, and I tell them, ‘I will get you there.’ We’re out there to help students as much as we can. We’re out there to help students as much as we can.”
Locket is one of 108 full-time members of NAU’s University Custodial Team, which works daily to ensure the 118 office buildings, classrooms and residence halls on campus are kept clean and neat—cleaning 6,795,000 square feet in about 200,000 hours each year. NAU is recognizing the custodial team next week, as National Custodial Appreciation Day is Oct. 2.
Director of operations and maintenance Scott Perelstein encouraged NAU employees to recognize members of the University Custodial Team throughout the week.
“Appreciation goes a long way with this hard-working team,” he said. “Take a moment and say hello and thank you. It’s a tough job that gets a little easier with some recognition.”
Locket, who has been with NAU for almost 21 years, said she loves working with the people—her team, other employees and the students. Although she is now a supervisor, she still does plenty of hands-on work keeping the campus clean.
“We’re a unit, and we get the job done as a unit,” she said.
Facilities Services is celebrating with a lunch event at the 1899 Patio on Oct. 6.