Cleaning in halls confusion

Since the start of the year, residents in College halls have been coping with a reduced cleaning service, with bedrooms being cleaned only once every four weeks rather than once a fortnight. This is the result of a cleaning review carried our by College’s Campus Services department, the department that in is charge of Accommodation, Catering, Conferences and Events, Sport and the Student Hub. Over the Summer College re-tendered their cleaning contract, resulting in changes to the provision of cleaning services around College. One of the issues faced by students affected by the changes was the poor dissemination of information, many students failed to understand the change in circumstances or the options they had available to them as a result. This included the availability of cleaning equipment for student use in halls, and why the changes were made in the first place. When Felix approached Campus Services several weeks ago about the changes to the provision of cleaning in halls, they provided the following response: “College has recently reviewed its cleaning services, as the last review was over seven years ago. It made some changes to ensure the cleaning rotas address needs across the campuses. These include the following within the areas of Campus Services -Student feedback over the past few years has suggested a need for Halls to be cleaned on weekends, to tackle any mess created on Friday evenings. Saturday cleaning has now been introduced as part of the rota changes. -A significant proportion of students preferred not to be disturbed by the fortnightly cleaning scheduled on the previous rota. This has now changed from fortnightly to a monthly, deeper clean. General cleaning equipment including vacuum cleaners will be provided. -Cleaning service levels are not one of the factors considered when calculating student rents. Campus Services are contacting all students resident in Halls to ensure they are aware of the changes, and to provide details of who to speak to if they have any concerns Updating the approach to cleaning means that other facilities can also be serviced more regularly or at more useful points in the day. These include Ethos, which can be used heavily in the evenings, and the Library Café which is often used throughout the night by students, together with other student facilities in Sherfield. All of the changes will be monitored closely and kept under review, and any students who encounter any difficulties due to the new rota can share these with their hall supervisor. Campus Services have kept the Union’s Deputy President (Finance and Services) up-to-date on the planned changes.” Aside from the issues surrounding the frequency of the cleaning service, several students and sub-wardens have raised a possible legal issue surrounding the changes. The frequency of the cleaning service is one of the terms and conditions of the Accommodation License that all halls’ residents have to agree to before they can accept an offer of accommodation. As mentioned in at the start of this year’s contract, College Accommodation Licence (2013 -2014), the licence contains legally binding obligations that apply to students. However, this year’s licence still states in Section 4 (Cleaning) that “At all accommodation with the exception of Xenia all kitchen, reception and other communal areas will be cleaned daily, Monday to Friday, and study bedrooms will be cleaned fortnightly...” The disparity between the contract signed by every student in College accommodation and the cleaning services provided by College has caused some concern in the halls’ population. Several halls’ residents have sent in complaints to Campus Services regarding what they consider to be a breach in contract, to which the department replied, “…We do reserve the right to vary the frequencies in order to avoid having to increase our running (and therefore rental) costs.” However, this does conflict with the initial response we received from Campus Services (see above) where they state that cleaning service levels are not considered when calculating student rents. Felix looks forward to their clarification on this issue. Last year’s Union President and current sub-warden Paul Beaumont sent a letter of complaint (in a personal capacity) to the Rector, Provost, College Secretary, and Associate Provost (Institutional Affairs) this week, in which he stated, “Although the licence reserves eight other rights to vary the contract, altering the frequency of cleaning is not one. An organisation cannot (or should not – even if it reserves the right to) vary a contract except under extreme circumstances. ‘Re-tendering’ and altering the provision to save money (but not passing on this saving to the customer) is not, in my or in any of the residents I’ve spoken to views, an extreme circumstance.” Felix has asked Campus Services to respond to a few questions, asking to have more information about the feedback process they used to solicit student feedback, as well as the number of the respondents who preferred monthly cleaning. We’re also hoping to be told more about the decision process and how they plan to operate for the rest of the year. However, we are aware that Campus Services will be reviewing the cleaning provision in the near future, especially for areas where the level of cleaning in inadequate, with a view to increasing the level of cleaning in these areas (i.e. kitchens used by large numbers of students). We have also heard that they have provided some cleaning materials for students to use and we look forward to further developments.