The Black Squirrel Chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary will show appreciation for Kent State Residence Services staff this week.

The theme of this year’s recognition week is “Coming Home” because the residence hall staff makes residents feel at home, said Deborah Pritchard, junior public relations major and NRHH secretary.

“It’s important to recognize people that might not be recognized because they make a big difference in living areas at Kent State,” Pritchard said.

All residence services staff will be recognized throughout the week, with each day focusing on one particular group.

However, each day, the 72-member house keeping staff cleans more than 30 residence halls, and some members hear “thank you” zero times.

Greg Trask, a housekeeper at Tri-Towers, said he hears “thank you” two or three times a week. Dunbar Hall housekeeper Bob Eskridge said he hears it zero times a week. Eskridge said most students are good about respecting staff and property and there are only a few that don’t.

“They’ll just leave food and cups anywhere,” he said of some students.

Although he rarely gets thanked, Eskridge said students are still appreciative.

“You can tell that even though they don’t say thank you that they do appreciate you,” Eskridge said.

Centennial Court A housekeeper Julie Hamilton said students are respectful of her and the property. One student even left a bottle of water on her cart last week, in case she was thirsty. She said she hears “thank you” about 10 times a day.

Centennial housekeepers must clean personal bathrooms in the residence halls, giving them more opportunity for interaction with students.

“It is a different atmosphere than the other (residence halls),” Hamilton said.

Trask doesn’t clean the bathrooms in Tri-Towers, but he spends his days making sure the hallways and lounges on the first floor of the buildings are clean. He said if students took more time to realize what the staff’s jobs entail, the housekeeping staff would gain more respect.

“There are things they don’t think about, like dropping trash on the floor, not wiping their feet and spilling stuff — stuff that I didn’t consider until I had this job,” Trask said.

Contact room and board reporter Julie McKinney at [email protected].