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Janitor Filipaj, the Dream Pursuer

Verena Dobnik

1 For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia

University. A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he made a living working for the Ivy

League school since 1993. But Sunday, May 13, 2012, was payback time: The 52-

year-

old janitor put on a cap and gown to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in classics.

2 As a Columbia employee, he didn’t have to pay for the classes he took. His favorite

subject was the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca, the janitor said to the

Associated Press reporter during a break from his work at the student union building

he cleans. “(1) I love Seneca’s letters because they’re written in the spirit in which I

was educated in my family

—

not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple,

honest, honorable life

,” he said.

3 For Filipaj, the degree comes after years of studying late into the night in his Bronx

apartment, where he’d open his books after a 2:30–11 p.m. shift as a “heavy cleaner”

—

his job title. Before exam time or to finish a paper, he’d pull all

-nighters, then go to

class in the morning and then to work. As his mother tongue is Albanian, it took him

almost seven years to learn to master the English language before he was admitted to

the School of General Studies. (2) His graduation with honors resulted from his strong

will to overcome all the difficulties he ran into in the following dozen years of studies,

including readings in ancient Latin and Greek.

4 On Sunday morning on Columbia’s Manhattan campus, Filipaj flashed a huge smile

and a thumbs-up as he walked off the podium after a handshake from Columbia

President Lee Bollinger, who presided over a ceremony in which General Studies

students received their graduation certificates.

5 “This is a man with great pride, whether he’s doing custodial work or academics,”

said Peter Awn, dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies. “(3)

He is very

humble and grateful, but he’s one individual who mak

es his own future.

”

6 It’s been a long road for Filipaj who fled to the United States in 1992, leaving

behind his parents and siblings on a family farm in Montenegro, then a Yugoslav

republic. Filipaj has always been a dedicated student. When he was living in

Montenegro and working on his family farm, he attended the Law College in

Belgrade as a part-time student, but he was unable to finish his degree due to the cruel

civil war and had to leave his homeland during the last year of his studies.

7 At first in New York, his uncle in the Bronx offered him shelter while he worked as

a restaurant busboy. “I asked people, which are the best schools in New York?” he

said. Since Columbia topped his list, “I went there to see if I could get a job.” Filipaj

was accepted at Columbia as a janitor.

8 Part of his $$22-an-

hour janitor’s pay still goes back to his brother, sister

-in-law and

two kids in Montenegro. Filipaj has no computer, but he bought one for the family,

whose income comes mostly from selling milk. Filipaj also saves by not paying for a

cellphone; he can only be reached via landline.

9 During the interview with the Associated Press, Filipaj didn’t show the slightest

regret or bitterness about his hard life. Instead, he cheerfully described encounters

with surprised younger students who wondered why their classmate was cleaning up

after them. “They say, ‘Aren’t you...?’” he said with a grin.

10 His ambition is to get a master’s degree, maybe even a Ph.D., in Roman and Greek

classics. He hopes to become a teacher someday, while translating his favorite classics

into Albanian.