Dear Chancellor Leavitt- I’m signing this petition to request your immediate rejection of the plan to outsource the employment of the dedicated and hard-working custodians and grounds crew at UW Oshkosh’s three campuses—UW Oshkosh, UW Fox Valley and UW Fond du Lac. We strongly believe this decision would be harmful to students, to the university, and to our community.

Our Reasons

•Outsourcing will cost more money than we currently spend

•This option hurts loyal, hard-working employees, who have put in decades of service

•Sending taxpayer dollars to an out-of-state corporation is not good stewardship of public resources

•Students shouldn’t have to pay a new tax through tuition dollars to profit a company based in Tennessee

•Outsourcing jeopardizes the great work these crews have done to implement our vision of sustainability

•Students have traditionally been employed in both these areas and this would reduce opportunity for them

•This process lacks any transparency—better decisions are made when stakeholders work together

•There have been frequent complaints about the job done by this company where they’ve been hired

•This move is contrary to the UWO’s stated vision; it does not exemplify empathy or social justice

•If janitorial and grounds are privatized, who is next? This decision would deeply unsettle our community

Our Alternative

Let’s work together to find home-grown solutions to the challenges we face in recruitment, retention, and allocation of resources. Other UW schools are doing grounds and janitorial work successfully with state employees. There is no shortage of ideas from the smart and experienced people who work in these areas and their campus friends.

Join us in protest

Tuesday September 6 2022 from 1-3 PM…on Wisconsin Avenue and environs meet in the Culver Center Parking Lot near Wisconsin Avenue. At 1 we march to campus.