The morning shift: Construction workers on campus

Campus is dark. In the distance a bird chirps, and leaves rustle as a squirrel darts into the bushes. Hard-toed boots clank towards the gate.

It is 5:30 a.m., and supervisor Sul Crawford is about to open the Princeton University Art Museum construction site for a long day of work.

Soon workers arrive on the site, and Elm Drive rumbles with trucks and buses carrying materials and workers between the two main construction sites: the art museum and Hobson College. The sound of drilling permeates the air intermittently. During the 15-minute break at 9:30 a.m., strains of a Britney Spears song can be heard on the site. Only later, closer to 10 a.m., does the crowd of students emerge and make their way to class, crossing in front of the trucks and past the sites.

The Daily Princetonian interviewed four construction workers around campus to learn more about the people hard at work in the morning before most students even dream of leaving their beds.

At the start of the day, it’s just one person waiting, and the impassive concrete tucked away behind the construction barriers. Crawford exhaled. “Quiet. Nice and quiet.”

Sul Crawford

On a late October Monday, Crawford took a breather just outside Murray-Dodge Hall in a yellow vest and a white hard hat with his name emblazoned on it. He wore an easy smile and a beard.

Crawford is the first person to open the construction site every morning. He lives in Philadelphia, so he wakes up at 3 a.m. to get ready for the hour-long commute to work. As a supervisor, some of his tasks involve giving other construction workers access to the site, keeping the site clean, and managing deliveries of project materials.

“The hardest part of this job is showing up. Once you show up, the rest is easy,” he said. Later, he would have a half-hour lunch break at noon — he likes to go to Frist Campus Center. His day ends at 2 p.m.

As a seasoned construction worker, Crawford has done all kinds of work. He has built dorms, a new hospital, and a Presbyterian Church. When asked how work at Princeton compares to other projects, he said, “Princeton is real strict, but it’s not a bad thing.”

When asked his favorite part of the job, Crawford said, “Keep it honest, getting paid,” adding, “We got a tight knit crew here, like a family.”

Although Crawford doesn’t interact with students much — mainly being in the job sites other than when he’s at the gates — he has advice for them: “Stay in school and do whatever you're going to school for.”

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Brandon Wesby

Brandon Wesby has been working at the Hobson College site for a month.

“So I’m kind of like a Princeton freshman,” he joked. ”We’re in the same boat.”

On site, he directs the traffic of construction trucks, letting them in and out of the gates. Wesby initially had a career in landscaping at a retirement home, but decided a year ago to follow in his brother’s footsteps after seeing the opportunities heavy highway construction opened up for him.

The 42-year-old native of Lakewood, N.J. currently lives in Jackson Township. His day begins at 5:30 a.m., with the hour-long commute across the state to a parking lot near the University. He then rides a University-provided bus to campus. His work officially begins at 7 a.m., although deliveries do not usually arrive until 7:30 a.m.

Summarizing his experience at Princeton, Wesby — like Crawford — noted a preference for procedure.

“Everything is by the book, by the rules,” he observed. “Safety is first for everybody, and I like the structure they have here.”

Around noon, a cement truck arrived, so Wesby stood up to open the gate for it while parsing out the difference between Class B and Class C construction vehicles to the ‘Prince’ — not included in fear of issuing a less eloquent explanation.

“Look, I’m right back on my butt sitting again,” Wesby said after shutting the gate.

For lunch break, Wesby alternated shifts with his colleague Kenneth. He regularly goes to the Rocky-Mathey Dining Hall either at 12 p.m. or 12:45 p.m. “I love to go to that cafeteria,” Wesby said. “You get a break from here and get to see all the kids.”

Despite seeing students pass by every day, he said he has never had a proper conversation with a student until speaking with the ‘Prince.’

“Everybody is just in their own worlds, so I don’t really stop and ask, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ he reflected. “But if you come up to me, I’ll talk back.”

Nevertheless, he has found enjoyment in observing the campus from his seat. “Since I never went to college, it’s so cool seeing them look happy, living their lives, and interact with each other,” he said.

Describing his favorite part of his job, Wesby said, “Thursday payday. That’s the goal, we want to make it to Thursday.”

Looking ahead, Wesby said he hopes to become a journeyman, the top-ranked position in construction where an increased payrate reflects their abundant on-site experience.

“For me, I just went to school,” Wesby explained noting it was run by a construction union. “I don’t have any special certificates, so I kind of started at the bottom of the totem pole and worked my way up. As I’m coming up on 1000 hours, I plan to go back to school for a couple of weeks to learn something else that’ll help me in the field.”

At 2:30 p.m., the construction companies started packing up, taking the shuttles back to the parking lot. From 3 p.m. onwards, Wesby begins his second job: fatherhood. With two daughters and three sons, Wesby spent the remainder of his day helping them with homework and spending quality time with his loved ones.

Donald

Donald has been working at Princeton for three years as part of Local 172, the construction union representing heavy and highway laborers in South Jersey. He has been based at the Art Museum site since April 2023 and lives 30 minutes away from the University.

Donald declined to disclose his last name for privacy reasons.

Describing the nature of his daily tasks, Donald remarked, “Everyday is different.”

He and two of his colleagues, at the time, were working on pulling up the concrete pavers behind Dod Hall and jackhammering the blacktop road to install new bike racks. The next day, their focus would shift to digging trenches for electricians to set up the light systems near the building.

However, some parts of his routine remain constant. After arriving at 7 a.m. everyday to work — their usual 6 a.m. starting time, he explained, has become impractical due to the later sunrise — Donald stretches for 10 to 15 minutes.

“Now that the building is up, it is quiet,” he noted.

From 12 to 12:30 p.m., he broke for lunch before returning to work until 4 p.m.

For Donald, this job is a lucrative choice.

“With no college education, you ain't going nowhere else and make the money we make. Depending on your first job, we make more money than you make,” he said, directed to Princeton’s future graduates.

Donald also said he appreciates the safety guaranteed by his job at the University.

“I love working at Princeton. This is site work,”he explained. “You could end up on a highway, [with] a drunk driver on that highway, and you may not ever go back to work again.”

He recounted how his colleague’s foreman was hit four years ago on Route 42 by a drunk driver.

“It happens. Being on the highway is dangerous,” he added. “Here, what’s going to happen to you? Nothing.”

“All you have to do is pay attention. On the highway, you can’t pay attention,” he concluded.

To Donald, construction work entails much more than physical labor.

“No matter what the trade is, if you don’t band together, you are not going to get anything done,” he reflected. “If someone sat out here arguing day in and day out, this building would not be standing up.”

Mike Cisrow

When the ‘Prince’ met Mike Cisrow, his voice boomed over the whir of construction equipment behind him.

“I’ve been in this industry about nine years and at Princeton about 14 months,” he said through the construction site’s metal fence.

Cisrow is a seasoned Princeton worker: Prior to his work at the Art Museum, he was on the team for the Dillon Gym site, a position that had him wake up at 4 a.m. every morning for his one-hour commute from Gloucester Township in South Jersey. Now he gets up at 5 a.m., which he said is the “only downside” to what is otherwise “a perfect job.”

Unlike the more “secluded” construction sites he’s worked on, Cisrow said he appreciates the scenery of Princeton’s campus. It checks two main boxes for him: safety and cleanliness. Here, too, he has found community amongst his fellow workers.

“Everyone works together,” Cisrow said. “Everyone plays a part in making everything happen.”

Cisrow’s interactions with students, on the other hand, are mostly peripheral observations he makes in his position as gate guard, guiding trucks safe entry and exit from the job site.

He noted that he sees students getting ready to go to class, playfully adding that they regularly look at their phones, not paying attention as they walk near the construction sites.

The rarity of in-person interactions makes them all the more special, Cisrow said.

“Somebody can make your day just by smiling or laughing. Something like this is making my day,” he told the ‘Prince.’

“Like, wow, I’m really being interviewed!”

Angela Li, Faith Ho, and Rory Rusnak are contributing Features writers at the ‘Prince.’

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Friday, November 15

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