On Thursday, Aug. 20 and Friday, Aug. 21, NSU received an additional 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to refill the 10,000 bottles the university is providing. NSU also received 24,192 canisters of sanitizing wipes to be distributed to the 760 classrooms on campus.
“Each classroom on campus will receive a canister of sanitizing wipes that students can use to sanitize their surfaces, hands, computers, phones and whatever [else they might need to sanitize]. There are about 100 wipes per canister, which will eventually need refilling,” said Seth Mangasarian, director of Physical Plant, NSU’s maintenance and operations of campus facilities.
To ensure that these canisters are consistently full and ready for student and faculty use, NSU custodians are checking each classroom twice throughout the day and once during nightly cleanings. In instances where classrooms are in need of replenishment, Mangasarian explained that students can call ext. 28800 and reach the work center that will dispatch a member of the custodial team within 20 minutes to refill the canister.
In NSU’s efforts to keep the campus safe for all students during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Physical Plant has deployed their staff of 225 custodial workers all across campus, as well as an additional 31 workers whose sole duty is enhanced cleanings. These enhanced cleanings involve disinfecting all of the high-touch points throughout campus and performing the nightly cleaning and disinfections of all campus facilities.
As a part of these efforts, Mangasarian explained that NSU has increased the presence of hand sanitizing stations on campus.
“Prior to the inception of COVID-19, we had 909 hand sanitizing stations on campus. Since then, we have added over 11,000 stations throughout campus and now we have over 2,100 hand sanitizing stations… We wanted to make it the safest environment possible for when everyone [comes to campus]. When [people are on campus] they will have all of the items in every place they need and closest to the high touch point areas,” said Mangasarian.
As a way to make students and staff feel more comfortable on campus, the Physical Plant has also provided faculty with a kit that includes sanitizing solution and microfiber cloths so each faculty member can wipe down keyboards and other touch points within the classroom.
“I am truly impressed with the entire student body, from move-in week to this being the first week of classes. I’m knocking on wood here, but our student body and our community has done an outstanding job at making sure that we have the right things in place to keep our community can be safe,” said Mangasarian.
