June 23, 2008

Survey Finds Cleanliness Is Key for Student Concentration

Findings of a new nationwide survey show a connection between cleaner college facilities and academic achievement, according to the survey’s sponsors, with 88 percent of students saying they are distracted from learning in even casually or moderately messy environments. In addition, 84 percent of students surveyed said good learning environments should be spotless or very tidy.

Not surprisingly, the poll of 1,481 students was conducted by the Association of Physical Plant Administrators, whose members are educational-facilities managers, and the International Sanitary Supply Association, an organization of cleaning-product companies.

And the real message of the survey results may have as much to do with maintaining the size of janitorial staffs as it does with cleanliness.

“In this day and age, when services are cut in order to save dollars, this study shows that cutting cleaning services could have a detrimental impact on our primary customers, the students,” said Alan Bigger, president of the physical-plant managers’ association, in a news release describing the study results.

John Garfinkel, executive director of the cleaning-industry association, added: “These findings provide a vital tool for facility-service providers to reinforce the benefits of cleaning; there’s also a great deal of public-relations power in that message if an institution can use its cleaning program to inform students and their families what it is doing to protect the well-being of its population.” —Eric Kelderman

Comments

1. I’m gonna have our faculty senate do a survey proving that students learn better with higher paid professors.

   — Fred    Jun 23, 06:51 PM    #

2. A survey of what students say?
   How about actually testing performance? Next news…
   Students say text messaging during class improves their concentration…

   — so what    Jun 23, 10:37 PM    #

3. Remove the filthy liberal rats from academe and it will not need cleansing.

   Fools.

   — Anna    Jun 24, 12:55 AM    #

4. Of course, students perform better in clean, tidy environments. It’s long been known that that is an important component for helping students with ADHD — don’t know why the rest of us would be any different. I, for one, appreciate the contributions of our janitorial and maintenance staffs. Given the snide comments above, looks like I’m the only one. Sad.

   — Kathy    Jun 24, 06:10 AM    #

5. Kathy, you are not the only one to appreciate janitorial and maintenance staffs. The comments above are probably from people who don’t realize the secretaries and janitorial and maintenance staffs are the most important people in their world. May their support personnel go on strike!

   — Lynn    Jun 24, 06:20 AM    #

6. You call this news?

   — Astro    Jun 24, 07:38 AM    #

7. Ok, ok, it’s true that our janitorial staff is essential to the functioning of our universities. It is a shame that this reality apparently didn’t enter the heads of those who wrote the first few comments. However, it is also amusing, the way the study was designed and by whom it was done.

   — K    Jun 24, 07:44 AM    #

8. What a load of crap! I’ve been in our dorms. . .not just young men, but young women as well tend to live like swine in a pigsty. Of couse there are exceptions, but rooms that are a shambles are right in the center of the bell curve. Who are these people kidding?

   — Bill    Jun 24, 08:06 AM    #

9. My grandfather taught education and religion at Franklin College of Indiana his entire career. When he retired, I was about fourteen. He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. In typical fashion then, I said I wanted to be a college professor. He said, “Well, a sense of perspective is important. It’s a wonderful thing that we have college professors, but where the hell would we be without the people who take the trash away?”

   Not something to engrave over a library door, perhaps, but it could be seen as eerily prescient. I edit mss these days, most of them edited or written by academic authors. And essentially that’s what I do: try to take the trash away.

   And without the people who empty the wastebasket and all that, I would be neck deep in paper.

   Would you rather empty your trash yourself or struggle along without that deconstructionist down the hall?

   — Dan    Jun 24, 08:17 AM    #

10. Ya’ think maybe if students would pick up after themselves their places of learning and recreating would be cleaner?

    — Dr. Jimmy    Jun 24, 08:55 AM    #

11. Why are there so many trolls on this site? (like Anna)

    — me    Jun 24, 09:23 AM    #

12. I think there are several correct things in the article and the remarks. Considering student/dorm life, maybe that’s why I keep hearing from students that its difficult if not near impossible to study in the dorms.

    — ech    Jun 24, 09:24 AM    #

13. A couple of months ago a Chronicle staffer wrote a laughably credulous story on a report from a virus-defense software maker about non-existent virus threats. You know – a little paranoia can help the bottom line. Completely duped the reporter!
    Now, this sneeringly condescending report! Does an editor read the stuff on the News Blog before it goes out?

    — RobJ    Jun 24, 09:26 AM    #

14. Anna (#3),
    Please note comment #12 above. Anna, you may want to take the opportunity to clarify that you were writing satirically, that you were using irony or whatever is the truth. I am sure you didn’t intend to be read literally.
    A literal reader of what you wrote would have to conclude you are a fascist.

    — Dave    Jun 24, 09:43 AM    #

15. From the initial posting: “…on our primary customers, the students,” said Alan Bigger,…”

    Our students are NOT [italics] our “customers”. You cannot award an earned grade of F to somebody who is always right. And unlike barracks in which things are squared away, domitory rooms are generally pretty cluttered by the occupants themselves.

    — Joseph F Foster    Jun 24, 09:46 AM    #

16. I never cease to be amazed by which stories are ignored and which set off a flurry of comments.

    — Sue    Jun 24, 09:47 AM    #

17. As a teacher I teach better in a clean room in which all the equipment works and which I don’t have to check out ahead of time. I appreciate janitorial and tech support staff, the library staff and sharp secretarial staff. So should we all, and pay them well and provided the equipment they need.

    Now if we could just get our adjunct pay raised, too (no raises for 5 years, effectively cuts which will be severely felt now in the face of rapid inflation)….

    — be!    Jun 24, 10:06 AM    #

18. Teaching in the late afternoon in a classroom filled with the stench of rotting junk food is repulsive. And I’m farther away from the garbage than the students are. I would love to forbid food in the classrooms, but alas, there’s little support for that. A mid-day clean would much improve the environment.

    — Lisa    Jun 24, 11:45 AM    #

19. Students may live in junky rooms, but that doesn’t mean they study effectively in them. None of us do our best thinking or pay attention best when there are distractions in the environment. DUH.

    — Al    Jun 24, 12:17 PM    #

20. HAA! Good one, Mom.

    — apologetics    Jun 24, 03:43 PM    #

21. I think “cleanliness” is more a result of focus and order than focus and order being a result of cleanliness. Studies have shown that those in “depressed states of mind” also had increased levels of clutter and mess. The same can probably be assumed to be true with institutions, neighborhoods, communities, and countries. Improve the focus, control and empowerment of the individual, and you will see an improved environment. Anyway, a theory to explore…

    — Laurie    Jun 24, 03:43 PM    #

22. To poster #9: The housekeeping staff doesn’t clean dorm rooms. Students are responsible for their own rooms. The housekeeping staff may or may not clean the bathrooms, depending on the type of dorm. The staff may vacuum the hall. But the staff definitely cleans classrooms and offices. And to poster #23: I agree. It has been proven that the owner of an organized mind begets an organized personal environment.

    — deborah    Jun 24, 04:15 PM    #

23. CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODDLINESS.

    — Savage Detective    Jun 24, 04:18 PM    #

24. Dust allergies could be more common than we think. However, there is not much information about the way this study was conducted and the group doing the survey is not without bias.

    — me2    Jun 24, 04:31 PM    #

25. Even John Wesley spelled it “godliness.”

    — Dan    Jun 24, 04:41 PM    #

26. Dan: Yeah but John Wesley Harding spelled it “goddliness.”

    — Savage Detective    Jun 24, 06:53 PM    #

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