Occupy UC Davis Cleanup & Repair Cost $8,500

It cost $7,000 to clean up Dutton Hall after it was Occupied, according to UC Davis. An additional $1,500 was spent on labor and supplies. 

Police said they gathered sleeping bags, blankets and couch cushions that were left at the site, as well as marijuana and empty alcohol bottles. They also reported graffiti and damage to the grass in the quad. 

The Dutton Hall Occupation began after  by campus  on the quad. A very bluntly written article about the cleanup appeared on UC Davis Dateline Friday. It was later modified to look like this. 

Here's the original report. Feel free to respond in the comments. 

The last two occupiers left Dutton Hall at 10 a.m. Sunday (Dec. 11), and soon thereafter the cleanup and repair crews moved in — all on overtime.

They worked from about noon to midnight, scrubbing away graffiti, fixing broken door locks, cleaning the stained carpets, picking up trash and airing out the building.

Meanwhile, groundskeepers have their work cut out for them on the Quad, the site of an encampment that at its height numbered about 80 tents. A few tents and a geodesic dome remained as of this morning (Dec. 16), and officials said they were making plans to aerate and reseed the turf.

Allen Tollefson, assistant vice chancellor in charge of Facilities Management, estimated the cost of the Dutton Hall cleanup and fix-it operation at $7,000. The grounds unit estimated a cost of $1,500 in labor and supplies to rehabilitate the Quad.

At Dutton Hall, six custodians and five building services employees put in a total of 63 hours on Sunday, cleaning the building and making repairs.

Then, Monday morning (Dec. 12), for the first time in two weeks, Dutton Hall employees found a clean and clear path to their offices, and students once again had easy access to important services such as Financial Aid and the Cashier’s Office on the first floor, Student Accounting and the Student Academic Success Center on the second floor, and Student Judicial Affairs on the third floor.

No more stepping over people in sleeping bags. No more maneuvering around tents in the lobby and hallways. No more seeing people in their underwear.

The occupation peaked with about 30 people spending the night. With the occupation’s end, Dutton Hall employees regained confidence that everyone in the building had legitimate business there, as students, faculty or staff.

The presence of occupiers who were not affiliated with UC Davis "was a big worry of ours,” said Matt Carmichael, acting police chief. “And it was a big fear of the employees, including women who felt they needed to pair up for restroom visits.”

Carmichael said the Police Department stepped up its patrols during the occupation, walking through Dutton Hall every hour, 24 hours a day — a practice that meant reduced patrol elsewhere on the campus.

“Dutton Hall is not meant to be lived in,” Carmichael said. "It is not meant for sleeping or food storage or eating or doing your laundry in the bathroom sinks."

Yet, that is what went on there for two weeks — as evidenced by the strong body odor in the building. Tollefson said eliminating the smell required his crews to stop the recirculation of air and fully exhaust the building.

Maintaining student services

The occupation posed difficulties for students and staff, said Don Dudley, director of Student Judicial Affairs.

His office closed for one day and Financial Aid closed another day, but, other than that, Dutton Hall employees “absolutely did the best they could to keep providing services,” he said.

Still, students — on the eve of final exams — found themselves having to adjust to alternate sites for tutoring sessions or workshops, or alternate ways of taking care of business at Student Accounting, where a large tent blocked the main entry.

Leslie Sherlin, associate accounting officer, said Student Accounting closed its service counter and instead worked with students by telephone or online, or arranged to meet them outside of Dutton Hall — if they felt uneasy about coming in.

As the occupation went on, and the employees mustered through, the protesters held meetings and teach-ins, and posted Facebook invitations to two after-hours dance parties, neither of which drew a big crowd.

Besides walking through Dutton Hall on an hourly basis during the two-week occupation, police responded to nine calls for service in the building, compared with zero during the same time frame a year ago.

The occupation-related reports included an assault and battery involving two people not affiliated with the campus, and someone beating on doors.

The cleanup

Police also heard from two custodians, unsure how to go about their work in the occupied building.

Carmichael said the occupiers did little cleaning of their own. They made such a mess of a sofa that the university threw it out, after first trying to clean it.

In a Dec. 11 article, The Davis Enterprise quoted Bernie Goldsmith, described as a local attorney active with the protesters, as saying the occupiers would “broom-clean” the building and hire a professional window cleaner.

But the window cleaning apparently never happened, Carmichael said, leaving Facilities Management with the task of removing all the tape that the occupiers had used to hang up posters.

After the building emptied out, police picked up the belongings that remained, including sleeping bags and blankets, a cushion from a couch — and a scooter. Carmichael said the property is being held in safekeeping at the Police Department, if owners wish to claim the items.

Police said they also gathered contraband: marijuana and empty alcohol bottles.

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