With nearly a lifetime of outdoor work experience, Matthew Minnick is enjoying his job as a supervisor for the University Grounds, Recycling and Solid Wastes team.

“There seems to be no better way to learn the campus than to work in the grounds department,” Minnick said. “The classroom experience is extremely important, but getting your hands dirty doesn’t hurt.”

Minnick began his first grounds job at the age of 14 and enjoyed working with plants ever since, working in a greenhouse before he came to the University.

“I don’t think you would last in this job if you didn’t like the outdoors,” Minnick said.

Minnick said that it is easy to take the atmosphere of campus for granted until working on it for the first time. He said that a lot of the litter is picked up early in the morning and recalled a new worker who thought the campus looked clean at first glance.

“He was out there at 6:30 picking up the litter and says, ‘Holy cow, I had no idea there was this much work out there,'” Minnick said. “Which is what we want. We want the first impression to be one of cleanliness and caring.”

The grounds appearance is the first thing people see when coming to campus, Minnick said. The groundskeeper Eric Zirger said it is particularly important around orientation during the summer.

Zirger, a senior health care administration major, mows the northeast and northwest ends of campus in a week-long process that goes from Monday to Thursday. On Friday the mowing crew often helps the weeding, push-mowing and mulching crews.

“Everybody has been really kind and hard-working,” Zirger said. “We take pride in trying to [maintain] campus upkeep and beautification.”

A native of Tiffin, Ohio, Zirger took the job because he is taking summer classes at the University and had experience with outdoor maintenance when he played baseball in high school and worked on the field.

Zirger said the crew has done a good job keeping the campus clean for visitors, such as Buckeye Boys State, while working around the current campus construction.

Another way grounds helps keep campus clean is by staying “green.” Zirger said the lawn mowers are started up with diesel fuel, warm up a bit, and then run on used cooking oil from dining halls.

The cooking oil also does not emit caustic chemicals, something Minnick said is unique to the University by developing a filter system that most other institutions don’t have.

Minnick credited the creators of the system for saving the University money on expensive diesel fuel as well as cutting down on emissions.

“It’s not without problems, it’s not perfect,” Minnick said. “Everything has its own set of difficulties, but overall it’s remarkable the leadership that we’ve done.”

Minnick referred to the 1990 Tallories Declaration, which the University website said that more than 300 university officials in over 40 countries signed the document to take steps toward environmental sustainability.

The grounds crew is also responsible for collecting recyclables and taking them to the recycling center as well as placing recycled plastics into outdoor objects such as benches and trash receptacles, according to the website.

Minnick said the University also makes use of irrigation systems and recently won an award for water conservation. The University is in the process of tying its water systems into a computer, so that whenever there is a leak, the system will automatically shut itself off and an alarm will be sent by computer to notify the crew.

“I always tell people, I’m not really an environmentalist, I’m actually a groundskeeper,” Minnick said. “But I can be a groundskeeper with an environmental approach.”

While the job is enjoyable, Minnick points out that there are significant challenges, such as clearing away snow during the winter and edging along the campus’ 30 miles of sidewalk space.

Kyle Knapke, a senior music education major who also started work in the summer, works as an edger which is also a week-long job.

Knapke said the job helped him to get to know campus locations much better, and he now knows several lots and building locations by heart.

He also believes that working with the roughly 20 other students on staff is important to building teamwork and community skills in the real world.

“Everyone around here is so nice,” Knapke said. “That’s one of the top reasons I came here.”

What really lasts with the students who work on grounds, Minnick said, is the tendency for students to pick up after themselves as well as developing a deeper connection with the University and community.

“Working here with students has enriched my life beyond belief,” Minnick said.