Dorm Crew
Education Professor’s Tweet Sparks Debate Over Harvard Dorm Crew
A group of academics and students have charged in articles and on Twitter that Dorm Crew — a Harvard College program in which undergraduates clean other students’ bathrooms for pay — is demeaning to the students who participate in it.
Endpaper: Dignified Work
There is no room for considerations of minimum required work hours or potential access to faculty mentors. For me and many others, a job means money.
Dorm Crew Adds Transition Advising Amid Calls for Low-Income 'Bridge' Program
Harvard Dorm Crew plans to shorten its work day and include extra advising sessions in its Fall Clean-Up schedule next semester.
The Proud Tradition of Toilet Scrubbing
These maids, alternatively monikered “sweeps,” “biddies,” (a diminutive for the name Bridget that became a colloquial name for a maid) and “goodies,” were considered a staple of the Harvard College experience. In late 1950, university officials anticipated that the maids would soon demand higher wages and proposed the more economical Student Porter Program.
Dorm Crew Increases Employee Wages
Dorm Crew has implemented a more generous pay schedule this fall and offered dinners during its pre-orientation program for the first time, following suggestions from an employee survey and criticisms in the College’s report on diversity and inclusion.
Logging Hours
Sarah Lagan ‘19 and Noemi Valdez ‘19 look over a work hour log-in sheet in a Cabot House storage room. The two did Dorm Crew Fall Clean-Up together and continued to work as a team after finding that they were good partners.
Dorm Crew Dairies: Weird Stuff in Rooms
Harvard Dorm Crew is a division of Facilities Maintenance Operations and employs scores of students to perform custodial jobs for on-campus housing. The students running this massive operation are no strangers to surprise. The cleaning teams have tackled everything from giant messes to bizarre left-behind possessions. After the mass exodus of students at the start of summer, dorm crew employees remain at Harvard to clean out the newly vacated rooms. It’s a chance to see the school in a whole new light, and catch glimpses of student lives from Mather to the Quad. It’s also a chance to find some crazy stuff.
