Student volunteers run the program which serves janitorial contractors and local members of the Service Employees International Union. The program paired 55 sets of janitors and students at Stanford for English lessons, according to The New York Times.
Roughly 85 percent of the Union members are immigrants. Many of them possess few, if any, of the basic English skills needed to get by in the job market and keep them afloat financially. "Learning even the rudiments of English can save a janitor from being fired for not responding to a request he does not understand," reported The New York Times.
Custodians at Amherst may not face the same language barriers that those at Stanford may have.
"I'm pleased to say that of the 43 custodians at Amherst, the vast majority have very strong English skills," said Mick Koldy, Assistant Director of Custodial and Special Services. "Many of our staff are of an ethnic background and their comprehension is very good. We have on occasion had employees whose comprehension is very good but wanted to improve their writing skills. I have found our Human Resources Office and the Amherst Adult Learning Center to be extremely helpful."
Jay Buchman '07 shared that he would be interested in participating in the program if it were to be established at Amherst. "It sounds like a good idea. I would definitely be for it," he said. "I think this service to custodians could potentially benefit not only them but provide valuable service to the tutors."
With some help from a group of willing students, many janitors and custodians at Stanford have gained the skills necessary to move from the night shift to the day shift. Many were able to find employment beyond their university jobs, and some also passed the citizenship examination. Thus, the tutoring program seems to have the potential to affect not only the janitors' and custodians' employment, but their lives as well.
The consequences of getting lost in translation can be quite costly for someone trying to keep a job. Doreteo Garcia is a 41-year immigrant janitor who works the morning shifts in the Stanford art museum and uses his lunch break to walk across campus to meet with a Stanford senior who tutors him in English.
One of Garcia's most recent lessons, entitled "Making Requests," focused on polite expressions Garcia could use with his boss. In this particular lesson, Garcia and his tutor went through a list of expressions that would be more appropriate than others. For example, the tutor explained that the question "Can I bother you?" would not be as fitting as the question "Is it O.K. if I ask you?"
Garcia's tutor taught Garcia that more suitable phrases such as these can often help develop a more friendly and respectful relationship between janitors and their bosses.
Garcia, who has been meeting with his tutor for four years now, is currently working on writing a letter to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger regarding the issue of allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver's license.
Today, Garcia not only writes poetry in English, but he even submits some of his work to the Op-Ed section of the school newspaper, The Stanford Daily. Garcia has also spoken to Stanford freshmen as a part of their orientation program.
Garcia's tutor and now-close friend Eric Eldo told The Times that the experience of being a tutor has taught him more than any classroom experience could have.
"There's a lot of privilege in this place and a lot of ignorance about that privilege," said Eldon in The Times.
Eldon was critical of the way most Stanford students treat the custodial staff. "People are used to having maids and servants. If they trash their dorm, they're used to having someone else clean it up," he told The Times. "You can take classes on all sorts of highfallutin political theories and trends. But to me, none of them teaches as much as being connected to people outside of Stanford."
Most of the funding for the tutoring program comes from state aid. The Union contributes through its establishment of an education trust fund which has employers contributing one cent for each hour worked by each janitor.
Students would be in favor of developing a similar program at the College. "I think in general the ability of students to teach others English and help those others do better is a good thing," said Roz Foster '05. "It would be helpful for many people at Amherst to develop a similar program. We have plenty of students that participate with younger students with English as a second language; I can't see why students wouldn't be willing to help out with adults."