While many of the university’s buildings have shuttered their doors and professors and students have Zoomed into classes, an assortment of key UW staff has remained on campus for the last year and a half. From facilities and custodial crews to residential and dining staff, the UW’s frontline workers showed up in-person — and continue to show up — to keep the campus safe, clean, and ready for students when the university reopens with modified operations in the fall.
Staff members fulfilled their work responsibilities while also protecting the health and safety of their coworkers and themselves. Mask mandates, safety protocols, and the widespread availability of the COVID-19 vaccine this winter provided some protection. However, the best way to avoid contracting COVID-19 is avoiding exposure in the first place — a tall order when working in close proximity with other people.
As the UW approaches its first in-person quarter this fall since the university shut down nearly 18 months ago, these frontline workers continue to provide essential services for the campus community.
Mary Beth Johnson, the lead painter for Housing and Food Services apartments, holds her mask in the Stevens Court maintenance office.
Mary Beth Johnson: Apartments lead painter, Housing & Food Services
While some colleges sent students packing, UW Housing & Food Services (HFS) has continued to operate for UW students in need of housing throughout the pandemic. When faced with the growing urgency of the pandemic in spring 2020, not all on-campus residents chose to stay. Some students moved back in with family and stayed in their hometowns for the subsequent academic year, but others would return to campus a few months later in the fall, hopeful for some semblance of a normal college experience.
During the 2020-21 school year, HFS hosted around 4,000 residents, less than half of their standard capacity. Throughout the residential community, HFS instituted safety and cleaning protocols early on, giving custodial crews more responsibilities on top of their daily tasks.
Maintenance supervisor Ray Alfano acknowledged how he and his team have been lucky to keep their jobs at a time when unemployment increased nationwide. His crew has maintained positive attitudes and continues to put in the work necessary to manage HFS infrastructure.
For Mary Beth Johnson, the lead painter for HFS apartments, reduced occupancy meant more opportunities for maintenance crews to update appliances, repaint spaces, and stay busy.
“It even got a little bit busier because we were able to get into places we weren’t normally able to get into to get work done,” Johnson, who has worked for HFS for four years, said.
Everyone working within HFS buildings wears masks, and statewide vaccination rates are going up, Johnson explained. As HFS expects to return to standard housing capacity, Johnson plans to continue her important work.
“I don’t intend on it being any different,” Johnson said.
Nicole Siciliano: director of programs, Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources
Take a stroll around West Campus and you might run into a pod of toddlers out for their daily walk on the Burke-Gilman Trail or hear a troop of children playing tag in the yard of the UW Children’s Center.
Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources hosts six child care facilities in Seattle, four of which it operates in partnership with the UW. UW students, staff, and faculty can enroll their children at the West Campus, Portage Bay, Laurel Village, or Radford Court centers.
Nicole Siciliano handles administrative tasks through the company’s main office and has been lending a hand at the West Campus Children’s Center as they transition leadership.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the centers severely limited enrollment capacity to provide child care for only essential personnel families. Over time, the centers expanded enrollment. Staying open has been important for the members in the UW community that the child care centers serve, as many of the parents themselves are frontline workers at the UW Medical Center, according to Siciliano.
Nicole Siciliano sits in the office space at the UW Children's Center at West Campus. Siciliano is a director of programs for Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources, which runs four childcare programs for the UW community.
Young children might seem unlikely to stay clean and masked up, but Siciliano says they have done well. For children who are new to the center, a slight adjustment period may have been necessary to get comfortable, but overall the kids have mastered the safety requirements.
“The older children remind each other to put on their masks,” Siciliano said. “They don’t seem to care too much.”
Mark Pilder, a UW Mailing Services driver, poses with the electric assist cargo bicycle he uses to deliver mail and packages to over 450 departments across the entire campus.
Mark Pilder: mailing services driver, UW Creative Communications: Mailing Services
Zooming around campus on an electric-assist cargo bike is Mark Pilder’s job. For the past three years, Pilder has been one of the drivers for UW Mailing Services, delivering mail and packages to the over 80,000 students, staff, and faculty spread over 455 departments across campus
Since the onset of the pandemic, the number of people actively working on campus has decreased, but the workload for Mailing Services has remained high. While the university hubbub trickled down, mail processors and delivery drivers on campus stayed relatively busy, processing graduation shipments, dorm supplies, and other standard mail.
Although fewer people on the streets makes it easier to ride the large and heavy bikes around campus, it’s not the same without the usual campus buzz.
“Campus is usually empty and quiet during winter break,” Pilder said. “But that’s what it’s been like for 18 months.”
Plus, Pilder said, it’s been really hard to get a cup of coffee.
Chris Erick: Local Point and Cultivate General manager, Housing & Food Services
Local Point, the West Campus dining hall, serves around 4,000 students daily in a typical year. With housing occupancy reduced over the past 18 months, dining staff has seen about 1,000 students a day.
As a facility built on the idea of social eating, HFS dining crews faced several unique challenges in ensuring resident and staff safety throughout the pandemic. Early on, residents could only order food for take-out, with plexiglass barriers separating customers from cashiers. The normally bustling residential hubs became quiet, except for the occasional beeping from kitchen appliances, or the sound of pop music playing gently from the ceiling speakers.
Social distancing ambassadors reminded students to maintain distance between other guests, and regularly sanitized and cleaned high-touch surfaces.
As Washington slowly lifted safety guidelines, residents were once again allowed to sit at tables and couches of the large dining halls.
Chris Erick, the general manager of Local Point and Cultivate on west campus, sits on a couch in the dining hall. On-campus dining exists to serve the over 9,000 residents living in UW residential halls and apartments.
For Chris Erick, the manager of Local Point and Elm Hall’s Cultivate, serving as both a frontline worker and staff supervisor had its challenges. It was a daily battle of making staff and students feel safe and comfortable, Erick said.
“The anxiety was a huge thing,” Erick said. “It still is.”
Working as a team throughout all of the changes required a significant amount of listening and compassion.
And of the 35 workers at Local Point, there was not a single case of transmitted COVID-19 — an accomplishment Erick is particularly proud of.
After 18 months of keeping the university operational, the UW’s frontline workers will continue to be around campus this fall quarter. Students will fill the residence halls, community spaces, and classrooms, often crossing paths with staff members working in positions like the ones written about here. Take the time to thank these essential workers, or offer a friendly “hello.” After all, they are the workers who keep the UW running.