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Berkeley to Law School Students: Please be your own janitors. Thanks.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 6:52 PM - By Kashmir Hill

berkeley law boalt hall mouse above the law.jpgA Berkeley Law student has sent along an administrative e-mail that will confirm any preconceptions you have about the dirty hippies there. Boalt Hall Berkeley Law Professor Bob Berring sent an e-mail out to students Monday asking them not to indulge in “feeding frenzies” in study areas and to clean up their own crazy food messes, due to “the limited number of overworked custodians at the law school.”

Berring says Berkeley can’t “hire extra teams of custodians” right now to tend to the dirty Berkies’ common areas.

On today’s Morning Docket, we mentioned that Dean David Van Zandt at Northwestern Law is reminding deferred 3Ls that they do not need to make monthly payments on their loans until they start working, leading a commenter to say:

Unless this financial mess eases, next to fall are the law schools. Deferring loan payments means the schools (especially the weaker ones) will start operating in the red. Just like the big law firms have discovered, operating in the red gets old fast—and eventually leads to dissolution. Fewer law schools is not a bad thing, and in fact may be unavoidable.

That seems a bit too gloomy and doomy to us. But apparently, Berkeley is keeping its budget lean by recruiting its students to do janitorial duty. Here’s an excerpt from the Berring e-mail sent out to all students, with the subject line “Food, Vermin and You. A Serious Plea for Help:”

The Student Center was built and furnished to a high standard in the hope that it would be enjoyed by you and future generations of folks like you. We are off to a bumpy start. Currently it appears that there are major feeding frenzies in a space that was designed primarily to be office and study space. Folks have been leaving seriously gross food messes on the tables in the lounge and conference rooms, on kitchen counters and in the sink.. If you leave out open food containers, rodents and roaches, who are even luckier than the ones in library, inevitably show up. Someone has to clean this mess up… This is not a complex message: clean up after yourselves.

Berkeley isn’t the first law school with a “seriously gross” problem. Remember the “Cravath” bed bugs at Columbia? But based on what we’ve seen previously at UCLA, maybe rodents are the more appropriate California problem?

See the full e-mail, with detailed cleaning instructions, after the jump.The pop culture references sprinkled throughout (i.e., study rooms as dirty as “Seth Rogen’s apartment”) lead us to believe Berring’s more hip than hippie.

E-MAIL FROM LAW PROFESSOR BOB BERRING TO BERKELEY LAW STUDENTS

From: Bob Berring
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 3:00 PM
To: Students - All
Subject: Food, Vermin and You. A Serious Plea for Help.

This is one of those e-mails that no one wants to write, but, as the Walrus said, the time has come. The nature of common space and the limited number of overworked custodians here at the law school demand it. Everyone has to start cleaning up after themselves. People are
leaving messes that are severely irritating other humans who must use the same space and that are causing joy in the vermin community.

First, the Law Library. The bottom line is this: you can eat in the Main Reading Room, but you cannot eat in the North Addition. At all. No food, not even a package of crunchy m&ms or carrot sticks. You can bring in drinks in a secure container, but no paper cups, cans, open cups,
etc. In the fall the library folks gave out spill-proof cups for just this purpose. If you have lost your cup, stop by the reference desk for another, while supply lasts of course. Mice and roaches are appearing in the North Addition. They are lured by folks who are leaving behind sticky residues on desktops, spilling foamy lattes on the carpet and generally strewing crumbs in all directions. No one wants to be the food police, but no one wants to share the space with
roaches. Help us out here.

Second, the Student Center: The Student Center was built and furnished to a high standard in the hope that it would be enjoyed by you and future generations of folks like you. We are off to a bumpy start. Currently it appears that there are major feeding frenzies in a space that was designed primarily to be office and study space. Folks have been leaving seriously gross food messes on the tables in the lounge and conference rooms, on kitchen counters and in the sink.. If you leave out open food containers, rodents and roaches, who are even luckier than the ones in library, inevitably show up. Someone has to clean this mess up. Just leaving it puts an unfair burden on our overworked custodial staff. It also hacks off other students who follow you into the space and do not wish to be trying to work in a space that approximates Seth Rogen’s apartment. It just is not fair.

This is not a complex message: clean up after yourselves. The custodial and facilities staff are not responsible for putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, removing leftover food from the kitchen counters or the conference rooms or for clearing trash left on tables in the student lounge. Wash your own dishes. If you have food and drink at a journal or organizational event, have someone responsible for cleaning the place up.. Do not leave open containers of food on the kitchen counters or conference rooms to “share” with others—it never works out that way. Break down and flatten you cardboard boxes so custodial staff can collect them (we do not have pizza box-sized recycling bins). The law school provides liquid cleanser and dish washer detergent in the kitchen, as well as general cleaning supplies including paper towels and sponges for you to use. There is a dishwasher (drawer-style) available. The two refrigerators in the shared kitchen are being cleaned out weekly. There is even a vacuum cleaner in the copy room should you be so inclined.

As a natural born spiller of beverages and dropper of food, I understand the root of this problem. But until we can hire extra teams of custodians, or journals can employ their own cleaning staff, everyone has to pitch in. See, I told you that this wan an e-mail that no one wants to write.

Bob Berring

Earlier:Bedbugs in the Ivory Tower? Critters Come to Columbia
Top Tier Law Schools Have Problems Too

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