Against all odds and all logic, the sun came out this weekend over our beautiful campus. Students took advantage of the rare February warmth and flooded quads and public spaces, thirsty to soak up some Vitamin D after a long Ohio winter.
Everyone from the lanyard-bearing freshmen to the hard-chilling seniors whipped out their beach towels, broke out the hot dogs and popped a squat on the only recently defrosted grass.
With those towels and hot dogs inevitably followed the stacks upon stacks of red cups, hopefully filled with water, but more likely filled with one of the many refreshing brews that have been reviewed in the “Beer of the Week” columns.
Our anger is not directed toward students’ public consumption of alcohol. Make no mistake: The Denisonian staff are no party poopers.
But, when you bring a red cup out into a public area, you had better be prepared to pick it up whenever you decide to stumble back into your building.
Many of us woke up on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to find our beautiful green quad space cluttered with trash.
That is absolutely unacceptable.
Students should obviously be encouraged to utilize the excellent public spaces we have access to on the hill. The unwritten rules that apply to any other shared space apply here as well.
That means that when you decide your day in the sun is over, you cannot simply let the trash in your hands fall off you like clothes from a teenager’s back.
The small Denison cleaning crew is not equipped to pick up the sheer amount of trash that was left behind by students this weekend. It is not difficult at all to make their jobs easier.
If everyone who had been sitting out on the quads had decided that they would commit to picking up their own trash, there would have been a lot more green grass to wake up to. That should sound familiar, because it’s conventional wisdom that we all were taught when we were still in elementary school.
Admittedly, this kind of behavior is going to lead to more warm days like the ones we enjoyed this weekend. Global warming will lead to a greater amount of opportunities to day-drink, but at the same time, it’s going to lead to the extinction of the human race.