Last Friday night, a little after midnight, I was sitting in my room minding my own business. All of a sudden, I heard lots of loud shouts and the sound of glass shattering. The shouts are a fixture of Friday night at any university, but the shattering glass should not be. I went out to the balcony to find people in the room above me tossing empty beer bottles out onto the campus walkway where they broke into shards. I tried to tell them to stop, but to no avail. Long story short, I ended up picking up the glass off the walkway before someone got hurt.
The following morning, while walking to brunch, I noticed a big pile of empty beer bottles, discarded fast food soft drink cups, candy wrappers, and other trash all over Foss Hill Drive near the observatory. To make matters worse, there were several groups of prospective students roaming the campus on tours, and it’s worth noting that both these instances of litter were right on the tour route.
As much as I’m frustrated by the lack of regard for the cleanliness of our own campus, I’m also dismayed that prospective students would get the idea that Wesleyan is a place strewn with broken glass and trash, where students just can’t be bothered to throw away their garbage. What would you have thought if that was your first impression of this otherwise wonderful school? It’s irresponsible of us, and it’s also arrogant to assume that it’s the job of the campus grounds crew to clean up after us as though we were little kids.
I realize Wespeaks like this have been written before and will be written again, but I think it bears repeating. So please, Wesleyan, pick your trash. We all live here and we all have a responsibility to keep this place clean.
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