Donna Paquette, Custodial Services

Author: Derek Schlickheisen

Somebody's epic night meant another typical morning for Donna Paquette, team leader of the Ross Commons custodial staff: three light fixtures were in shatters on Hadley 3, the drywall down the hall in Lang was sporting a couple of fist-shaped holes and the foosball table in the lounge was missing one of its massive legs.

As a resident of KDR, I have been a frequent recipient of the Monday-morning "We're not angry, we're just disappointed" look from our extremely patient custodial staff. Paquette, as well, seemed to take this scene in stride.

"It's not too bad," she says. "It's been a lot worse."

'Worse,' as I found out, could refer to the time when a member of her team noticed the first morning after winter break that someone had used a hallway recycling bin as a late-night urinal just before heading home for Christmas.

"She turned a pretty shade of green after that," said Paquette. "She had to come to our break room and sit with her head between her legs for a few minutes."

Yet these are only the worst aspects of a job that Paquette said is all about involvement with the Middlebury community. Not only has she been with the custodial staff for 15 years, but she counts at least 10 close relatives as colleagues in the Custodial, Dining Services, Snow Bowl and Public Safety staffs.

"We're very devoted to the College," Paquette explains. "There's not many days I've missed over the years."

While Paquette's schedule follows a routine - up at 4:00 a.m., at work by 5:30 to clean Ross Dining Hall before the breakfast rush - her days are often far from predictable. On the morning I spent with her team, two of her six colleagues were out on sick leave, and she was training Chad Huntley from the Recycling Center to take over duties on the third floor.

"Chad will clean 17 bathrooms this morning," Paquette explained, while Chad tried his best to cover a grimace. "Everyone works an eight-hour shift, and bathrooms are a big part of that time."

No matter how bad things get in Ross, however, Paquette said they have never approached the level of the now-closed A-Frame halls behind Freeman International Center. The A-Frames, legendary for the frequent noise complaints and alcohol-related damage, were Paquette's first introduction to working at Middlebury.

"I came during clean-out at the end of the year. We won't even tell you those stories," she said, as a fellow A-Frame veteran on her team chuckled knowingly.

Before leaving Paquette and her colleagues around 10:00 a.m. (the stoic Chad still had 14 bathrooms to go), I noticed a sticker attached to her cleaning cart, which she says was there when she inherited the cart from its previous user.

"And as always," it read, "the responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders."

I had no idea where the quote came from, but staring down the beat-up hallway of Hadley 3, it seemed appropriate enough.