Guadalupe Ordaz is a soft-spoken, pleasant woman who cleans the Shapiro Campus Center from 3 to 7 p.m., and is the reason why Brandeis' Green Monster always looks like nobody uses it. Her favorite movie is Rocky, and she loves John Travolta's work. Ordaz is the kind of Brandeis employee who would rarely get noticed unless she stopped doing her job. She is one of dozens of workers around campus that trudge through sometimes lonely and almost always messy conditions to keep the school looking fresh.

On her break, Ordaz retreats to a small room in Shapiro that is equipped with few amenities.

"I take a break when I can, because nobody takes care of me," she said. "I keep an eye out, and where there aren't a lot of people, I take my break. We have a little room on the third floor."

Ordaz also mentioned feeling lonely working in Shapiro at night.

"I don't have anything to do on my break," she said. "We used to have a TV, but the manager took it out. I don't have anyone to talk to. I feel very lonely a lot."

Instead, Ordaz said, she often leaves her break early to watch the students.

"It's better to be out than to stay inside," she said, "because I don't have anything to read, nothing to watch. I need something."

Head of University Services Mark Collins said Brandeis is doing everything in its power to keep workers like Ordaz happy. He said he recognizes that they are integral to the university, not just in terms of keeping it clean, but as a part of the community.

"Custodial and kitchen workers are a part of the students' everyday lives," Collins said. "They are an important part of the community and it's important that we keep them happy by treating them fair and well." Collins said he recognizes that despite efforts on his part, not everybody will be happy. "We're still not perfect," he said.

Some workers said they do feel like part of the community. For Victoria Mello, a native of Brazil, working at Brandeis is a pleasant experience, so pleasant that she can often be found singing Portuguese songs in the kitchen of the Sherman Dining Hall. Mello spends her time mopping the floor, cleaning the bathroom and washing dishes, but she said her favorite part of the job is interacting with students.

"I like seeing the students. They say 'Hello, Victoria, I like your earrings.' The people know me here. I talk to the students all the time."

Not all workers feel quite as connected to Brandeis. Some, like Ordaz, expressed feelings of isolation. For some, Brandeis feels like a place where people do not feel the need to reach out. One custodial worker who wished to remain anonymous said he does a lot for the students, including mopping up after parties and even once cleaning feces off of a wall. Yet, he said he rarely receives gratitude from the people he cleans up after.

"Sometimes the students will say 'hi' to me or thank me, but for the most part, we don't say anything to each other. It's like we are in our own worlds."

Some of these "dirty jobs" are undertaken by students, who often suffer less from loneliness, but still have to deal with the mess. Eric Pekar '08 sweeps, mops, wipes counters and cleans dishes in Sherman. The latter, he said, is usually the "dirtiest" job of all, especially on days the kosher side of the cafeteria serves dairy food.

"Dairy is a lot worse than meat," he said. "On dairy days there's a lot of really gross stuff like sour cream. You don't actually touch anything, you wash it off with a hose, but it's still gross to look at."

Most often, he said, he sees the remnants of pizza on students' plates. The most disgusting thing Pekar has encountered was an unidentifiable substance stuck to the wall of the kitchen.

"It was clear and had red stuff in it, but it was solidified," he said. "And I couldn't wipe it off. I had to get a scraper and I had to sit there and hit it and try to scrape it off, try to get it to crack."

But Pekar said he realizes it's all part of the job.

"It's a job, I need money. I don't really care," he said.

Several custodians who attended a Brandeis Labor Coalition meeting, all of whom work through Hurley of America, agreed that the floors and bathrooms were the hardest to clean.

Luis German, a sharply dressed man in a pink polo shirt and stylish glasses, worked as a banker in his home country of the Dominican Republic. Now, he said, he earns the same amount in a week cleaning the kitchens in Usdan that he did in a month as a banker.

German said that the kitchen floors are often soiled with grease, covered in water and littered with foods such as potatoes and onions. Large spills are common, and he said he works hard at removing stains. Because of his contract, which entails shorter shifts and more days, he said he often finds it difficult to clean everything that has to be cleaned during his shifts.

"There isn't enough time," he said. He added that because he works seven days a week, there is not a lot of time left to go to the movies or go dancing.

Cafeterias aren't the only difficult locations to clean. Noemy Marquez works in Goldfarb Library and Goldsmith, cleaning tables, bathrooms and study areas. She said the bottom floors of the library are dirtier than the top floors. Jose Pichirlo, who works in Golding, said that cleaning the floors requires the most time. And according to Carlos Mara, a custodian in Kutz, entrances are the hardest.

"The front door is the dirtiest," Mara said, because during the winter, salt, snow and sand are tracked in and wiped off.

Jos Jimenez, who works in Rabb, agreed, and added that he often finds garbage on the floor in the bathrooms.

Mario Estrada, who cleans Lown, concurred that the bathrooms are the worst, specifically the garbage in them. He said the floors collect a fair amount of trash as well. Students, according to Estrada, often leave their gum underneath the seats or their empty coffee cups on the ground. Picking chewed gum off the underside of seats is not one of his favorite pastimes; no, that would be watching soccer on TV.