Robert Barker/University Photography

Men from Facilities Services put down about 200,000 square feet of plastic flooring on Schoellkopf Field. The floor will hold about 8,500 chairs for Convocation and Commencement.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Plastic sheets are put down by men from Facilities Services, prior to the plastic flooring Tuesday, as the university prepares for Graduation Weekend.

Robert Barker/University Photography

To align all 8,500 chairs perfectly at Schoellkopf Field, custodians use orange string lines and measuring tape.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Year after year, Bill Youst and his dedicated crew consistently set up the campus perfectly for Graduation Weekend, thanks to his one-of-a-kind "Commencement Field Book."

A veritable battalion of custodians, carpenters, electricians, grounds workers – unsung heroes all – apply the final polish to campus as the university prepares to greet 35,000 friends and family of about 6,000 graduating students for the 146th Cornell Commencement.

Grass is cut, flowers trimmed, party tents assembled and chairs aligned in a grand cacophony of coordination. On Wednesday, lunchtime joggers cruised around the Barton Hall track, while a dozen custodians perfectly placed about 2,800 chairs.

Building Care’s Dawn Smith and Laura Bartholomew formed a tag-team to align the rows of chairs. Smith is a seasoned professional who’s been performing this task at Barton Hall for 15 years. “I want to give a little bit back to the graduating students and make sure the graduation goes really well,” Smith said.

Echoing those sentiments was Michelle Clark, a head custodian, who has worked eight commencements: “Every one of us wants to get it right, and we want Cornell to look good.”

Custodian Bill Babcock explained the dynamics of row precision. Through the magic of orange string lines and metal measuring tapes, each row of chairs finds its Barton Hall place. If the string line is even a quarter-inch off, Babcock said, the rows begin to curve. “One row at a time, it’s a fine Building Care machine. After we get going in a rhythm, it’s just boom, boom, boom, fast,” he said.

Meanwhile custodian Herb Whittaker, a veteran of six commencements, is hand-carting a dozen chairs in each load to the west side of Barton. By the time he’s done, Whittaker will have hauled thousands of chairs – but his weekend is far from over. When tens of thousands of parents, friends and loved ones fill the Schoellkopf Crescent Sunday, Whittaker will be stationed in the Crescent men’s bathroom to keep it clean and well stocked. “It’s quite the task,” he said. Asked if he had stories from graduations past, Whittaker replied, “No stories, luckily. If we don’t have stories, we’ve done a good job.”

Brent Johnson, a forklift operator, brings stage components to Barton and Schoellkopf Field. In fact, on the Schoellkopf stage scaffolding, Johnson placed speakers impeccably – with inches to spare – by delicately maneuvering an enormous forklift

Carpenter foreperson Bill Youst directs setup operations from a command post under Schoellkopf’s west stands. Teresa Truman, procurement assistant, helps coordinate Youst’s crew as they assemble 200,000 square feet of plastic flooring that will accommodate 8,500 chairs at graduation.

Youst has seen more than 30 Cornell graduations, and he has written the book on it – literally. He has compiled his own personal “Commencement Field Book,” replete with photographs, drawings, diagrams and notes of the flooring layout, fence locations, measurements, heights and chair layouts, so that Commencement in 2014 looks like those from years past.

From his command center, Youst provides a tour of three “job boxes,” each the size of a small dumpster, that contain screwdrivers, saws, staple guns, caution tape, power cords, WD-40, raincoats, safety glasses, gloves and flag stands. “It’s like having a little Lowe’s,” Youst explained. “We don’t need to run out to get anything.”