ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes insights the author gained from Elaine that provide a roadmap for change of sorts for four campus subcultures: departmental administrators and supervisors; high-level university administrators; faculty, students, and staff; and custodians. Custodial wages are low and stagnant, and the gap between custodians salaries and those of elite faculty and staff continues to widen. Pervasive college campus misperceptions include those of administrators as junkyard dogs and service workers as ignorant, incompetent, apathetic, lazy, and slow. They advocated that faculty and staff remain vigilant watchdogs so that universities do not dilute or abandon their responsibilities to cultivate civic educators, rather than to simply train students for jobs. Mobilization ensures the multidirectional flow of information and negotiations from management to workers and vice versa. Once custodians understand issues and have mechanisms in place to communicate concerns about these issues, collective action can result. Creating a sense of solidarity within custodian subcultures is a prerequisite to mobilizing with other campus advocates.
