Around 15 years ago, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian interviewed University of Massachusetts custodians David Wait, Dusko Cejic and Joe Niejadlik. When the custodians met the Collegian staff at the time, they became known by a nickname reserved for the likes of Team USA basketball legends.

“When we cleaned the Collegian office, they said ‘Boy, this looks great,’ and that’s how they gave us the nickname, the Dream Team,” Niejadlik said.

Kumble Subbaswamy, former chancellor at UMass, also used the nickname to describe the trio, according to Wait.

15 years later, a lot has changed, Niejadlik remarked. “I used to smile a lot back 15 years ago when I had teeth.”

“Yeah, my hair was black, and now it’s white,” Cejic added.

It’s been a long ride for the custodians, one nearing its end. Cejic is considering retirement next year, Wait plans to retire in one to two years, while Niejadlik will be retiring in three years.

“I’ve made a lot of good friends here man,” Wait said.

The typical day for the custodians involves a lot of early mornings and messy tasks.

“We get here at 6 in the morning to set and clean the Chapel,” Wait said. “Then we’re back [at the Student Union], put the chairs down at the Blue Wall. Take care of anything like trash, cardboard, sets, spills, there’s a lot of spills.”

The trio maintains a deep appreciation for students at the university.

“Trust us when I say we really try hard to make things good for you guys, we really do,” Wait said. “This is their house, and we’re paid to take care of it.”

Cejic’s son, Stefan, graduated from UMass is 2015 with a B.A. in Communications and Marketing. He later returned for a master’s in public policy in 2022.

“I know even though I don’t have my kid here now, we know how you guys put a lot of money into this school,” Cejic said. “One day you pay it off. That’s what I always said to my son.”

The students at UMass appear to reciprocate the respect and kindness of the custodial staff, “I can say 85 percent of students respect what we do here,” Wait said.

“If I bring a cart with cardboard down to the loading dock, and it falls out, people will help you,” Cejic said.

However, not everything has changed for the better. Over the years, the custodial staff has downsized, and there is frustration among the trio over the lack of new hires to help out.

Wait said, “We don’t mind doing it at all, but in the old days it used to be around eighteen people a shift. Now it’s like what, ten?,,,It’s twice as much work, but they won’t hire anybody. They cut the blue-collar worker.”

“We got some guys who are three, four, five years away from retirement, a couple months for one guy. Whenever three people leave the department, we say we’re short three people, and they say we got one guy. But I say no, it should be three, because we lost three people,” Dusko said.

Niejadlik said the custodians are the backbone of the university but they aren’t treated that way by the administration. He said he received a pen for his ten-year bonus at the university. Cejic says he received a $20 UMass gift card for his twenty-year bonus, except he had to pay taxes on it, making the value $17.

“We never got an end of year bonus like other workers, but all the managers got a bonus at the end of the year,” Cejic said.

The trio also wants to see better guaranteed bonuses for part-time student employees looking to pay for college.

“I had a student last year who graduated, making $16 an hour,” Cejic said. “He already has two years with us, he should be getting another dollar or 50 cents an hour for every semester to help pay for college.”

At the end of the day the trio’s main goal is maintaining the campus for the students.

“We give it 100% effort, because students are very respectful, over and over again,” Niejadlik said.

“And you should be respectful, whether it’s to the students, or the dining people, or us,” Cejic added. “If we don’t have the students, we don’t have a paycheck.”

George Coulouras can be reached at [email protected]