Fiona Greaney ‘29 & Kimberly Von Randow ‘28
Opinions Editors
It’s the morning after Halloween on the Hill. “What’s that smell?” The smell of a good time, a ruined pair of shoes, a festive haze. But not for the campus service staff. Their nightmare has just begun. The aftermath is more than the source stench of the bathrooms and floors that shine for the wrong reasons. Outside, empty cans scatter the lawns, and costume pieces lie lifeless, as if abandoned halfway through the night. My mother, who was visiting the hill for Parents’ Weekend, was appalled by the state of the campus the morning after Halloween. As I was walking her back to the parking lot at the end of the day, we witnessed a group of students drop glass bottles down a staircase and leave the remains. A fun weekend for students can become a grueling morning for those whose job it is to restore order.
It’s more than the parties—bags of trash are left in the halls for days (and sometimes longer) under the assumption that they will magically vanish. During room checks, alcohol was left fully packaged in the halls. At other times, the cardboard remains are discarded in a manner that could pose a fire hazard. One service staff member recalled that screen windows in Brooks were pushed out before Fall Break. The expectation that the mess will disappear has become a troubling trend. As the Student Social Justice Collective Executive Board put it, students on campus have “absolutely no concern for their existence” and treat service staff “as if they were invisible.” When asked about their impressions of service staff, most students were ambivalent. One, half joking, said, “We have service staff?”
This is not an insular set of incidents. As Bryce Maloney describes in his article “The Problem With The Way We Talk About Worcester,” students display incivility off campus as well, in Ubers and bars, including publicly urinating on people’s property. The disregard is a symptom of a school culture that upholds disrespect and downplays responsibility. If our student body feels no obligation to clean up after themselves, then what does that say about our effectiveness in the workforce? In life? As my mother said during Parents’ Weekend, college is a formative time. What kind of formation are Holy Cross students receiving if they are okay “(causing) mass damage to facilities” and “(bringing) ungodly messes from places that one wouldn’t even think possible?”
Despite the lack of appreciation they often receive, what stands out most about the service staff is their unwavering kindness. Even when the hallways are left a mess after a riotous weekend, they continue to greet students with warmth and patience. Their care extends beyond their duties; with some even leaving handwritten notes for students, warning them when the water runs rusty or thanking them for respecting the communal bathrooms. These small gestures of concern speak volumes and show genuine regard for our wellbeing—something we too rarely return.
As the SSJC observed, the culture many of us grow up in often emphasizes individual success and personal freedom over a sense of community responsibility. Within that mindset, it can become easy, even unintentionally, to overlook the people whose work sustains our daily comfort. We start to see our convenience as something naturally deserved, and their effort as something quietly expected. When that happens, empathy fades into the background, and gratitude begins to feel optional.
But it isn’t. Respect and appreciation are moral responsibilities that we must practice if we are to truly be men and women for and with others. The measure of a campus community is found beyond its traditions or prestige, it’s also found in how it treats those who make daily life possible. The janitors, dining staff, and maintenance workers of Holy Cross deserve our recognition and gratitude. And to be fair, many students do take that extra step simply by striking up a conversation or giving them a shoutout on Fizz.
If the people who clean our halls can still care enough to warn us about rusty water, then surely we can care enough to meet that generosity with our own. After all, being “for and with others” begins in everyday moments of respect.
Featured image courtesy of Google Images
Copy Edited by Colette Potter ‘26
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