The Office of Facility Services is short-staffed this semester, and some students are beginning to feel the impact.
Although many students said they haven’t noticed a difference in maintenance, some have complained about the campus’s restrooms, garbage cans and air conditioning.
“The bathrooms and the trash cans look to be a little dirtier than they were last year,” said Max Derrickson, sports administration sophomore, said. “It looks like they aren’t cleaning them daily like they used hot.”
Tony Lombardo, executive director of Facility Services, said a student recently contacted him and pointed out a lack of maintenance in Patrick F. Taylor Hall.  
Lombardo said the office has not faced a budget cut since last January, but it has been short-staffed since Gov. Bobby Jindal issued a freeze that limits the hiring of state employees until June 2012, making it more difficult to keep campus as clean as students are accustomed to.
“Because of the additional approval processes to hire, because of the state hiring freeze over the past year, we are not getting people as fast as we were in the past,” Lombardo said. “It’s a good check to make sure that we are keeping spending in order and in check. That can effectively be equated to a budget cut in that you’re not able to spend your funding on the personnel needed to do the campus.”
The office is in the process of hiring, but Lombardo said the process takes much longer now that all hires must be approved by the Systems Office.
Lombardo also said the start of each semester brings changes in cleaning schedules, based on the number of students in various buildings and the timing of classes.
Regardless of understaffing issues, the office is still working around the clock to keep students comfortable.
Lombardo and Tammy Millican, the manager of communication and grants at the office of Facility Services, said they rely on student feedback to keep the campus clean.  
They said they encourage students to call the University’s work-control staff when they see a problem so the office can quickly review and improve the situation.
“Any time a classroom is too hot or too cold, if [students] notice a restroom hasn’t been cleaned properly, or there’s trash that’s overflowing, if they can just make that phone call, we can get someone in our system to go out and take a look at it,”  Millican said. “There are definitely enough students to be our eyes and ears if there’s something that we don’t see that is going