custodian – Houghton STAR

By Anna Catherman ('24)

On July 4, 2024, Rene Stempert will celebrate her 30th year on the job.

“My first day on the job was a paid holiday, so that was kinda cool,” Stempert said.

Stempert started off on that day in July 1994 as a custodian in Gillette Hall. Now, she serves as the lead custodian for Sodexo, who promoted her to the role five years ago.

As lead custodian, there is no “typical” day on the job. Stempert does whatever’s at the top of her to-do list. She trains new hires and cleans guest bedrooms down at the Flats and in the President’s House. She is certified in pool maintenance. In the summer, she maintains all the hard floors on campus, scrubbing between tiles.

Although Stempert’s day-to-day work is primarily keeping campus clean and safe, Stempert views her work not as a chore but as a ministry.

Serving exclusively in Gillette for decades, Stempert made it her mission to learn the names of every girl in Gillette. Some years, she succeeded. She even knows many pets. Stempert recalls a seeing-eye dog named Brownie was the first service animal to live in Gillette with his owner, Elicia.

Now that Stempert’s work covers most of campus, she hasn’t had as close a connection to Gillette residents. But she gets to meet and train more students – up to 40 each semester, plus 3-6 new staff per year.

When students skip work or their performance goes down, Stempert has a heart-to-heart with them. Three times this year, she’s used the parable of talents as a reminder to be faithful in the small tasks. At the end of December last year, she saw a student in Paine who looked like he was depressed and struggling, so she stopped and prayed with him.

Stempert used to struggle a lot with being grumpy and short with people, and explained that she is still working at showing love and kindness.

Working at Houghton has helped Stempert’s faith grow. The first time she shared her faith journey in 2001 was a major turning point for her. She had accepted Christ a decade prior, after a childhood riddled with sexual abuse, a stint in the Air Force and marrying a man who became verbally and emotionally abusive. There were no sudden revelations for Stempert.

“I really wish my faith story had started off more intensely because I continued to make a lot of stupid choices in my life,” Stempert confessed.

But God used moments throughout the years to slowly transform Stempert. Sharing her story was a big one. One that helped her understand what testimony and ministry are.

Stempert strives to put what she’s learned into action. This year, she felt a strong call to invite people to come to her church. Thanks to her initiative, five First Year students are now attending Belfast Free Methodist. ★

Two separate flooding incidents involving pipe failure hit campus the past week, resulting in cut water access to one of the women’s dorms and damage to part of the dining hall ceiling.

The first incident occurred last weekend between 11 a.m. and noon on Saturday, January 18. According to Charlie Smith, maintenance building manager, a main supply pipe (10 inches in diameter) from the town “sheared off” near the front of the campus center. A pool of water formed directly above the area, alerting personnel that there was a leak. It is unknown whether the cause of the break was due to cold winter weather or to ground shifting. Regardless, the situation demanded immediate action due to poor drainage on the street and the potential flooding of the campus center basement.

College maintenance employees first inspected the leak, but because the line was owned by the town, a town plumbing outfit was eventually called to do the repairs. To repair the pipe, however, it was necessary to shut off the water in both Gillette and the campus center for several hours.

Andrew Cahill, lead custodian, alerted both the dining hall and the RD on duty in order to prep both buildings to function water-less for the majority of the afternoon and evening. The Gillette ARD, Samantha Krzyzewski, senior, was on duty at the time. Krzyzewski described that her first responsibility when she received the call “was to alert Gillette residents as soon as possible” so that they could be prepared.

Throughout the day residents of Gillette were unable to turn on the taps in the kitchens and bathrooms and were unable to do laundry or take showers. The dining hall, in the absence of water to run the dishwasher, was forced to serve food on paper plates and plastic utensils for both lunch and dinner. Krzyzewski remarked that she was impressed with the can-do spirit among the Gillette residents on Saturday particularly. “I’m impressed that when this came up people were flexible and understanding during the situation,” she said, and commented on groups of residents going on “bathroom parties” to the nearby Campus Fine Arts building.

The second flooding incident occurred on Monday, January 20 when a boiler pipe burst in the cafeteria, unleashing a cloud of steam and hot water which flooded down the cafeteria steps to the lower floors. The humidity from the hot water and steam prompted the alarm to evacuate the building. Students shuffled out of the dining hall, some leaving their half-eaten plates on the tables and other taking their dishes to nearby buildings to finish lunch.

The cause of the second flood proved to be due to a broken pipe fitting which was quickly fixed within two hours of the incident, just in time for dinner. Unlike the Gillette incident, water access was not cut off to the Campus Center and dining hall. However, the areas of the ceiling which sustained significant damage are remaining open so as to fully dry.