Essential Work for Higher Education: Studying Experiences of Campus Custodians

• In Event: Labor, Socioeconomics, and Class Dynamics in Higher Education Practice

Abstract

Campus custodians experience the contradictions of universities’ egalitarian mission statements and promises of economic security. Given the limited research on campus custodians and the fact that work, especially for essential workers, has shifted after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project is exploratory in nature. This paper is informed by critical university studies and draws from interviews of 19 campus custodians working on the same campus to explore how custodians experience campus and understand their work.

Author

• Antar A. Tichavakunda, University of California - Santa Barbara