Unsung Hero: A Troubleshooter

By Ajay Singh

Let's say you walk into a campus restroom and the floor is flooded with water. If you call Ext. 59236, displayed in many restrooms, you will likely speak with trouble-call dispatcher Stella Holguin or one of her eight co-workers, who work 'round the clock, 365 days a year, at Facilities Management to get all sorts of problems fixed. Holguin spoke with UCLA Today's Ajay Singh about her work.

How long have you been a trouble-call dispatcher, and how do you like your job?

For 22 years. It's been a good job for me. It's paid my bills, put my child through school, and I was able to buy my home. It has good benefits. And I've been really fortunate in having good bosses through the years. I've always felt I could talk to them if I had any problem.

Such as?

Oh, little things, like we had [to maintain] a paper trail for all our trouble-call tickets. I went to my supervisor's boss, Gail Cowling, and asked, "Why are we saving all these tickets when they're all on file on the computer?" She agreed. I got a little bonus, and we didn't have to do that any longer.

What kind of training have you had?

When I first came to work here, it was really simple — there weren't a whole lot of calls. Over the years, the campus has gotten so much bigger. We used to have maybe 10 to 15 plumbers. Now there are probably 30 or 40. We once had a handful of electricians — now there are about 50. I get anywhere from 50 to 90 calls a day.

What sort of problems do you typically handle?

It could be something as simple as a student smoking in his room when he's not supposed to. Or it could be that the automatic doors in the hospital aren't opening and closing. There's plumbing, air-conditioning, fire, smoke, burglaries, ceiling leaks, broken windows, a hole in the wall, homeless people sleeping in the bushes or one of the parking lots you name it. We change the temperatures in hospital operating rooms, and we get pest control calls — animals dying or rats in a room.

Are some calls more urgent than others?

Yes, "cold calls" (freezing offices), floods, flashing lights if you're epileptic, a flashing streetlight can give you a seizure.

What are the most urgent calls you can recall?

Earthquakes. People stuck in elevators. When the power goes out, everybody wants to know what's going on. Yesterday we had five flood calls from the records area at the hospital.

Do you get calls you shouldn't be getting?

We're always getting "information" calls. Plus, our number is in the bathrooms.

So you're really busy?

I had an engineer come in here one time as I was answering a phone, typing up a ticket and dispatching a call. He said to me, "You know, Stella, I never realized you guys do so much. I'm going to quit calling you to look up numbers for me. I'm going to call Information instead."