Building-management firm faces gripes

Some claim Trammell Crow Co.'s housekeeping has been inadequate. Penn officials say they're satisfied. Slightly over a year ago, when the University announced it was outsourcing management of most of its buildings to Trammell Crow Co., administrators envisioned a more convenient and cost-effective system that would provide every campus residence with a nearby representative to contact for maintenance or cleanliness concerns. But while administrators expressed satisfaction with the progress of the company's first full semester of management, several students in residences and numerous college house officials -- particularly in the Quadrangle -- pointed out significant problems with the system. Under the outsourcing deal -- which Penn Executive Vice President John Fry said last year would save the University 15 to 20 percent of the cost of management -- maintenance services are more decentralized, with each area of campus having access to a nearby management office. Residents can communicate problems to their area representatives via e-mail, telephone and a Web site. In previous years, all buildings would refer problems to a central maintenance office. "The idea was to have better response rates," Omar Blaik, vice president for facilities management, said. But despite the added communication resources, some residents said Trammell Crow has been responding to problems less efficiently than previous management did. And even Trammell Crow officials concede that the new system still has a few kinks. Amy Raphael, a College senior and a resident adviser in Spruce College House, said students in her house have had repeated problems getting their representatives, who are based in an office in the Quad's Community House, to respond to problems with their bathrooms. For example, she said, overflowing toilets in one of the bathrooms caused leaks through the ceiling and left feces on the floors of several bathrooms about a month ago. "Clogged toilets are considered an emergency, but when we call in to the emergency line, they say it's not an emergency and refuse to send anyone," Raphael said. She added that at one point, there was vomit on her bathroom floor for several days. It took several phone calls and e-mails to get workers to respond. "If I had known things would be like this, I don't know if I would have taken the job," Raphael said, adding that she did not experience similar problems as an RA in Spruce last year. Aramark, a Philadelphia-based company affiliated with the University, supervises housekeeping services, but Trammell Crow still oversees their operations and is responsible for making sure housekeepers respond to problems. According to administrators, part of the problem is the physical limitations of the Quadrangle. "The Quad is a difficult place for us to maintain, given how old the infrastructure is," Blaik said. And Linda Kinder, director of residential facilities services for Trammell Crow, said that since there are so many people sharing bathrooms in the Quad, they are difficult to keep clean. Kinder said she could attribute Raphael's concerns to three possibilities: A custodial person was not performing his job, the residents had unreasonable expectations or there was a supervisory problem. She speculated that members of Spruce Street House may have an "agenda," explaining that the other three Quad houses have not complained of as many problems, even though they are managed by the same team. "They don't like Trammell Crow," Kinder said. She insisted that cleanliness has not been a chronic problem, and that her staff is well equipped to respond to all concerns. Indeed, some officials in other Quad houses said they were not experiencing such drastic cleanliness problems or having as much trouble with communication. "Response time was not a big problem," Christina Cantwell, a College freshman and Goldberg College House resident, said. And Katherine Becht, house dean of Ware College House, said that service has been prompt and that "the people responsible for doing work are incredibly conscientious." When asked why her house complained about more problems than others, Raphael said, "Maybe we're just more vocal about it." But officials in other houses added that not everything is running smoothly with the transition to Trammell Crow. Becht said there seemed to be problems in the system. Often requests for service are not conveyed to the correct people at first, forcing the house dean herself to deal with Trammell Crow and taking time away from her other responsibilities. There were "too many new faces" in the process at the beginning of the year, Becht said. Blaik agreed, explaining "we put too many changes into the operation at the same time, which was very taxing on the people." She added, though, that the staff is "on the upside of the learning curve." And Jane Rogers, house dean of Goldberg, said that around October and November her residents started to complain about the bathrooms. Goldberg RA Damien Wertz said that while Trammell Crow has been fairly responsive to his residents' needs, other parts of Goldberg have not been as fortunate. "I've heard certain bathrooms were without toilet paper for quite a while," the College and Wharton junior said. Despite the concerns, Kinder reiterated that the necessary resources are in place. "I have 22 custodial staff in the Quad," she said. "That exceeds all industry standards. There would be no reason not to respond." Kinder conceded, however, that while the custodial staff is responding to calls, a lack of training may prevent them from doing the job well. "A lot of employees are not well trained," Kinder said, explaining that most bathrooms probably are being cleaned, but perhaps not properly. Since the custodial workers are University employees, it is not Trammell Crow's responsibility to train them. But Kinder added that she suspects residents might also be overly critical because Trammell Crow did not appropriately clean the bathrooms before RA and GA move-in at the beginning of the semester. Since then, she said, the situation has improved, despite isolated incidents. "We had a couple of issues where people made calls on the weekends and the response wasn't timely," Kinder said. She pointed out that housekeepers are now working Saturday shifts, which was never done before. In spite of the problems in the Quad, Blaik said he was pleased with the outsourcing transition thus far. "We were anticipating bigger problems," he said. "At least we maintained some level of service." And to improve the communication between students and management, Blaik said officials from Trammell Crow and the University will meet with groups from each of the houses to respond to their concerns. Cantwell, who is the president of Goldberg's student government, said her group met with representatives last week. At the meeting, residents discussed major concerns, which generally dealt with bathroom cleanliness. Trammell Crow staffers told the group that there were "some deeper problems" which required more time to fix, Cantwell said, adding that the group was told to expect a lot more improvement when they return from winter break, since the workers typically get more accomplished over breaks. And in the future, Blaik expects the system to run much more smoothly because it will not have to deal with a new college house system again.

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