Student ground workers have one huge responsibility this summer, keeping campus beautiful.

Student ground workers are a group of selected students that spend their summer performing numerous jobs to maintain and improve the quality of Iowa State.

This summer, the ground workers consist of 25 students that work up to 40 hours each week to keep the standards of the university.

Les Lawson, manager of campus services, oversees all groundwork. He commented about how students get involved in this program.

 “Every year, Human Resources puts the job opening out in the relative departments where kids would have an active interest,” Lawson said. 

Plant Supervisor Todd Wilson supervises during the regular school year as well as supervising the work the students carry out through the summer.

“It seems that every year, we have good students that help to keep the campus in shape. Though we prefer students that have had experience, we’ve hired students [both international and national] that have had no previous experience,” Wilson said.

The program has provided different opportunities for students to obtain jobs this summer in more than one area.

“We have a small crew of 4 students that work for our tar crew,” Wilson said.

This select group of individuals work on improving the roads and parking lots on campus.

Another small group of ground workers work on grooming the fields around the dorms and throughout the campus by performing string trims and cleaning up shrub beds.

The remaining students receive hands on experience by pairing with actual ground workers from various areas on campus.

“We pair about 15 students with full-time workers to do basic ground training work: picking up litter, weed eaters, push-mow, tree remover, etc.,” Wilson said.

Both Lawson and Wilson honestly believe that the assistance the students have provided throughout the summer has really helped the workers keep the campus healthy and beautiful.