With the start of spring, which presented itself in the form of a few cloudless, sixty-degree days this week, came the inevitable flooding of students onto Foss Hill. And as the flood receded, a hideous collection of bottles, cans, condoms, papers, cigarette butts and food trays laid spread across the grass.
Every year at about this time, the landfill-like state of the hill provokes someone to demand that the littering stop, but once the trash has been cleaned away by whichever poor staff member has that job, the whining and mumbling quiet and everyone forgets that there was ever a mess in the first place. This year, instead of letting the disgust fade, why don’t we just fix the problem?
The obvious solution is to install some garbage cans. These trusty appliances reside outside every building here; it seems only logical to have a few located at the most popular gathering spot on campus. Why there aren’t already cans on Foss—or even anywhere near it—is a mystery in and of itself. But if we’re looking for a permanent fix to the trash problem, implementing some cans is clearly the first step.
Even if a few trash bins do get placed on Foss, though, that’s only addressing half of the issue. The more deeply rooted aspect of this problem is that Wes students don’t seem to care how the campus looks. If there is one word that does not describe Wesleyan students, it’s “apathetic.” And yet, looking at Foss Hill last Friday, it would have been hard to convince a tour group of the passion and activism of our student body.
Having the privilege to go to a school like Wes does not give us the privilege to treat our surroundings like a dump. We are adults in almost every sense of the term—we vote, work, we live on our own—and yet we can’t even follow the basic preschool rule of cleaning up after ourselves? This campus is our home and it’s our responsibility to keep it looking like a place we would want to live.
If trash cans do appear on Foss in the next few weeks, do everyone a favor and drop your trash in them on your way down the hill. And if they don’t, suck it up, pick up your shit, and take it with you. It’s just that simple.