Homecoming weekend is the time for reunions, but instead of Homecoming bringing reunions to campus, it brought trash.
Beer cans, plastic cups, and well as food wrappers were scattered not only on campus, but off-campus as well.
Tanayja Sanders, freshman business marketing major, 18, feels that a lot of students should feel embarrassed by how the campus looked after Homecoming.
“The campus looked ridiculous after Homecoming. Students should feel embarrassed. People need to care more about the environment and this campus,” Sanders said. “It’s just trashy. Just imagine if a high school came to visit after Homecoming weekend. Those students would not want to come here. It’s just a bad look overall.”
According to Sanders, most of the trash came from drunk people who didn’t know what they were doing.
As the Homecoming festivities began, policemen on horses came out. Sanders commented that the horses were completely unnecessary if nobody was going to clean up after them.
“The way the horses relieved themselves all over campus was disgusting. It made the campus smell horrible. It was everywhere,” Sanders said. “I personally feel that if the cops worried more about the horses relieving themselves instead of watching students, that would have solved the problem. I feel bad for the people who had to clean it up. People step in it and people drive over it, which makes it worse. “
Sanders expressed that campus should never be trashed like that, even after a big event like Homecoming.
Langdon Smith, associate professor of geology, said that littering is a huge thing that goes on at SRU during Homecoming. He expressed that not only is this a bad look for the university, but littering also severely pollutes the air.
“Littering effects the campus in a number of ways. Most of all, it’s expensive. It’s a waste of time and money because a cleaning crew has to go around and clean all that up”
Smith also mentioned that he thinks that peer pressure has a lot to do with students throwing trash on the ground. According to Langdon, if students see other students littering, they will assume that it’s okay for them to do it as well.
“I think the school does a pretty good job in making sure that there is a regular trash can and a recycling trash can all around campus,” Langdon said. “I think that education is the key. If we can build awareness and get more student organizations that promote sustainability and a clean campus, I think these sort of things wouldn’t happen after Homecoming and it would change the behavior of most students.”
Smith said there are several recycling cans all over campus, but most students don’t realize what happens when they don’t recycle or the process that takes place when students recycle. When students throw away paper and plastic water bottles instead of recycling them, they get buried under the ground, which causes pollution. When students recycle, it takes away all the pollution from the air that would happen if they hadn’t .
“Recycling reduces waste. It also makes people more aware of their resources. It’s also a waste of time and resources. Not to mention that plastic takes forever to decompose, so it will stick around forever. We could save a lot of money by recycling instead of hauling out money by sticking these plastic bottles underground.”
