Early Bird

Latest on Covid-19 and campus operations

COO Larry Sampler shares cleaning tips to keep away the critters.

By Larry Sampler, chief operating officer

July 22, 2021

Dear Roadrunners,

It’s great to see so much life returning to the Auraria Campus. As we continue to ramp up on-campus activities and operations, this is a great opportunity to double down on – you guessed it – pest control.

Keeping Metropolitan State University of Denver buildings and workspaces safe, clean and pest-free requires everyone’s participation. While custodial crews are critical to this effort, employees who have returned to campus in any capacity are asked to support and reinforce cleaning best practices and protocols.

Rodent recon

As we have had mouse activity in parts of the Jordan Student Success Building, the campus custodial crew will be entering all JSSB areas, including private offices, to do a thorough cleaning for pest control. This will include opening unlocked drawers and moving light furniture to look for signs of mice and to clean those spaces. The team will not open any locked drawers or move heavy furniture. While we have made progress to control and remove pests over the past few months, this deeper cleaning will remove any traces the mice have left behind. 

This cleaning phase will be completed by the end of the day July 31. If after that date your area has not been cleaned, or you have questions, please contact the MSU Denver Facilities team. If there are large storage areas in your departments, please alert the Facilities team so we can work with you to clean those spaces. 

Regardless of what building you are in, if you notice signs of rodents please notify the Facilities team.

Critter control

The only way we can remove or prevent pest activity across all campus buildings is with a team attack. We can attempt to humanely trap them, but they won’t have any interest in what we have to offer if there are food/water sources elsewhere in the building. 

Please help us with this effort by doing the following:

• Remove all food items from the building at the end of the day OR store items in a sealed, hard-sided glass or Tupperware-style container. Bags or cardboard boxes are not sufficient, as mice can easily smell and chew through them.
• Secure any food that may be individually wrapped (tea/coffee, granola bars, candy, nuts, etc.) in a sealed, hard-sided container.
• Seal all food inside drawers and refrigerators in a hard-sided container. Do not leave anything in plastic wrap or baggies overnight.
• Wipe down your desk after you eat to remove crumbs. If you drop crumbs on the floor, please submit a work order here or notify facilities@msudenver.edu and we will have the custodial crew perform an extra cleaning.
• If you have plants in your office, please try to prevent water from sitting in the base overnight.
• If you use an approved service animal on campus, please empty their food and water bowls at night and pick up any remnants of food or treats.
• Place any food waste in one trash container, tie the bag at the end of the day and place it in a clearly identifiable location for custodians to pick up overnight (by sealing the bag, you are limiting the time that pests could find food between the time you leave and the time the custodians clean overnight).

Please reference recommendations from Orkin for further steps to help prevent mice.

Together, we can prevent pests. But if you do see mouse activity, please submit a work-order request here: msudenver.edu/facilities/ or email facilities@msudenver.edu.

Additionally, please keep in mind that these efforts are not a one-and-done approach. We need your help to ensure that there are no sources of food, water or bedding materials for the mice to return. Learn more by checking out this Orkin tip sheet.

Vaccination update

Of the 10,352 members of the MSU Denver campus community who have completed the vaccine-verification/exemption form, 84% are fully or partially vaccinated for Covid-19. 

Employees: 1,914/2,591 (74% response rate)

• 95% are fully or partially vaccinated.
• 1% intend to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester.
• 4% are exempt.

Registered students: 6,756/12,855 (53% response rate)

• 82% are fully or partially vaccinated.
• 4% intend to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester.
• 14% are exempt.

Unregistered students: 1,682/37,611 (4% response rate)

• 77% are fully or partially vaccinated.
• 6% intend to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester.
• 17% are exempt.

As always, if you have questions or concerns about our Safe Return to Campus, please reach out through this form or via email at roadrunnersafereturn@msudenver.edu.

Sincerely, 

Larry Sampler 

Vice president for Administration, Finance and Facilities and chief operating officer