2008 Woodie Awards
Editorial: A little respect
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
02/20/08 - If you wake up early enough chances are you will see members of the lands and ground crew picking up litter around campus. Armed with brooms, garbage bags and dump trucks these men and women perform a thankless job.
Custodians and maintenance personnel in academic buildings and dorms repeat variations of the job around campus every day. Routinely, URI staff clean up preventable messes and repair intentionally damaged facilities without a thank you.
Even more disturbing than the lack of thanks is the apparent lack of respect on the part of some students, who are supposed to be educated, mature adults.
It appears some students consider themselves above putting their candy wrappers, empty bottles or other trash in one of the many trash receptacles around campus. Others apparently have no qualms about smashing exit signs or setting off fire extinguishers when there is no smoke except that of a fuming temper. Students must remember that their actions carry consequences, if only in the perception of campus.
Six days a week, three times a day tours of visiting students considering URI as their future college crisscross the campus, weighing whether to spend their family's hard-earned money to attend. Almost without fail they will walk by scattered litter and, while they may remain silent, ask themselves, "What kind of school has trash blowing in the wind?"
Of course, the larger question is, "What kind of students can't make it to the trash or recycling bin?" Perhaps students are just lazy, irresponsible or plain apathetic. In any case, there needs to be a change.
Immediately, campus authorities - resident assistants, police, etc. - should start taking a hard line toward those that damage URI property or show a disrespect for campus. We're not calling for an armed litter patrol, but we do hope those that carelessly throw food down dorm hallways or break fire equipment are sent to the university judicial system.
But in the long run creating a cleaner campus will depend on changing an attitude held by some that university staffers are here to pick up after them. In fact, the University of Rhode Island is a college campus that students pay good money to attend. Your mother doesn't go here. So please, show a little respect and pick up your trash. And thank the custodian next time you see him or her.
Custodians and maintenance personnel in academic buildings and dorms repeat variations of the job around campus every day. Routinely, URI staff clean up preventable messes and repair intentionally damaged facilities without a thank you.
Even more disturbing than the lack of thanks is the apparent lack of respect on the part of some students, who are supposed to be educated, mature adults.
It appears some students consider themselves above putting their candy wrappers, empty bottles or other trash in one of the many trash receptacles around campus. Others apparently have no qualms about smashing exit signs or setting off fire extinguishers when there is no smoke except that of a fuming temper. Students must remember that their actions carry consequences, if only in the perception of campus.
Six days a week, three times a day tours of visiting students considering URI as their future college crisscross the campus, weighing whether to spend their family's hard-earned money to attend. Almost without fail they will walk by scattered litter and, while they may remain silent, ask themselves, "What kind of school has trash blowing in the wind?"
Of course, the larger question is, "What kind of students can't make it to the trash or recycling bin?" Perhaps students are just lazy, irresponsible or plain apathetic. In any case, there needs to be a change.
Immediately, campus authorities - resident assistants, police, etc. - should start taking a hard line toward those that damage URI property or show a disrespect for campus. We're not calling for an armed litter patrol, but we do hope those that carelessly throw food down dorm hallways or break fire equipment are sent to the university judicial system.
But in the long run creating a cleaner campus will depend on changing an attitude held by some that university staffers are here to pick up after them. In fact, the University of Rhode Island is a college campus that students pay good money to attend. Your mother doesn't go here. So please, show a little respect and pick up your trash. And thank the custodian next time you see him or her.