(No wonder the cover photo for Laney College’s Yelp page features an overflowing toilet.) Ronnie Yuen and I walked around Laney College campus with notepads and really clean hands.
Yuen is an active Laney student who voiced concern to me about air quality (at the gardens in particular) and restrooms on campus. (I am an ASLC senator.)
Together for three hours we attempted to document the state of four pieces of campus infrastructure: water fountains, restrooms, handicap accessibility, and fire safety equipment.
Along the way a number of additional problems presented themselves beyond the four parts of infrastructure we set out to document.
For example, outside the art center entrance automatic switch for handicap accessibility (which is not functioning from the interior or the exterior of the building) is a broken blue emergency phone box (referred to as “code blue phones”). A plate bolted over the phone reads: “This location being serviced”.
At a PCCD Health and Safety Committee meeting on Sept. 18, a code blue phones update was given. Included in the update was news that an outside firm has been contracted with to identify the functioning and non-functioning phones, and provide the cost to repair broken phones.
Other art center maintenance issues have gone long unaddressed. Lockers sit un-utilized and needlessly unavailable to students because old locks have not been removed. The locker next to mine has a label from 2010. How many students have been deprived of a locker since 2010 just because a work order hasn’t been placed?
Not lastly concerning the Art Center is the single set of light switches for the entire main hallway corridor located at the least-used entrance to the Art Center. Often when students leave a classroom after nightfall they find themselves stepping into a dark hallway, an obvious safety concern. If there are motion censors or a timer for the hallway, neither is functioning.

“We’re not Superman,” said Yuen. “We should make signs so students can report broken things for themselves.” The Laney College policy on postings includes limits to the number of postings, the size of the posting, the duration of the posting and requires the inclusion of contact information and approval from the Office of Student Services. Anyone can seek approval for postings at the Office of Student Services located in the administration building, Room 813.
Laney College distinguishes between two types of work orders. The first type is “custodial,” described as emergency cleaning. Some examples of custodial work orders include unexpected trash, spills, broken glass, an overflowing toilet, etc.
Although students are encouraged to ask faculty or staff to place custodial work orders, anyone can place a custodial work order at the Business Office.
Once a custodial work order is placed the Business Office logs when the work order was received, when it was communicated to custodial services, and when the work order was completed. According to the Business Office, custodial work orders are addressed within 24 hours, and usually within minutes of receipt.
The second type of work order is maintenance and repair, which gets referred to Peralta Community College District’s engineering staff. An example of a maintenance and repair work order is an overflowing toilet that Laney’s custodial services cannot repair, broken lights, etc.
Laney College’s Standard operating Procedure (SOP) 6.61.00 titled “Maintstar Work Order Requests” does not explicitly exclude students from requesting a work order be placed, although the Business Office is the only place a work order can be entered into the Maintstar system from Laney College.
Maintstar is the system PCCD uses to rank work orders’ importance on a scale from one to five, with one (as most important) concerning safety and health. PCCD assigns an engineer to address the issue or outsources it beyond PCCD.
In regards to maintenance and repair work orders, SOP 6.61.00 says to email Facilities Staff in the Business Office explaining the issue/condition and to include the following information: “a. Location (building and room number) b. Work Type (improvements, maintenance, safety, repair or other) c. Contact Information (name, department, phone number)”.
The Laney College Business Office is located in the administration building, Room 213, and the phone number is 510–464–3228.