Staff Senate COVID-19 Champions: Facilities custodian Glynis Hance

Glynis Hance loves to dance. Specifically, she loves Latin Salsa dancing and during her workday you might see her dancing to music she can hear in her head.

“It kind of perks up my day,” she said.

Dancing isn’t the only time she’s on her feet during the workday. She leads a custodial team of 18 who are responsible for keeping nearly 1,000 Housing spaces clean, including Douthit East and West, Calhoun Courts and Thornhill Village apartments.

This month the Staff Senate will recognize Hance as a COVID-19 Champion. Hance will be featured in the senate’s September newsletter as a face of the Facilities staff.

The Senate originally planned to recognize Facilities staff at an event in the spring, but the pandemic derailed those plans, according to Senate President Sue Whorton. The Senate Activities Committee now plans to honor the Facilities staff this month with campus signs, personalized e-cards, koozies, and tiger paw pins, said Brennan Beck, who serves as co-chair the committee with fellow senator Jake Anderson.

It’s appropriate Hance was chosen to represent the Facilities custodial staff as a COVID-19 Champion by the Staff Senate.

“I feel like we are a very important part of the University,” she said. “We’re considered essential, but we also help keep the residents here and staff – everybody – safe and germ-free as much as we can. I take that really personally, the cleaning that I do.”

Hance notes the pandemic has affected the way the custodial staff does its job.

“We definitely have more work to do now, which is fine, and it made us more aware of keeping things clean and sanitized – which we did anyway – but it makes you aware that you need to do it more often throughout the day,” she said. “The restrooms, everything, were cleaned, but you don’t think about – before this – how often someone is touching something.”

A Clemson employee for nearly 21 years, Hance represents her department in the Staff Senate and serves on the Activities Committee.

“I like being a voice for my department in Finance and Operations, and the custodial staff,” she said. “What I like about being part of the Staff Senate Activities Committee is the fact that we can appreciate people while they are here. I believe in appreciating and letting people know how I feel about them while they are here and not at a big, glorious funeral. I like to hope I made an impact on someone’s life while they’re here to hear it.”

Born and raised in Clemson, Hance loves the city and appreciates the opportunity the University provided for her.

“Widowed in 2008 with a son, I really didn’t think that I would make it financially, but I was able to and I’m just so proud that I’m able to hold my own,” Hance said. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but I did and I’m quite comfortable. I can thank Clemson for that.”

While she loves Salsa dancing, there’s something she loves even more: Solid Orange Fridays.

“Even when I’m off work, I still wear solid orange,” she said.