Messy behavior demonstrates disrespect

By Christine Pao     3/25/10 7:00pm

I have always felt strange about having Housing and Dining staff clean up after me. H&D staff members take out my trash each day and clean my bathroom on a weekly basis. As someone who was raised with her fair share of chores, I found it odd to shed the responsibility of cleaning up after myself just as I was finally approaching the point of maturity and self-sufficiency. But, realizing there are probably dozens of reasons why the administration rightly employs staff members to maintain students' personal facilities - among them allowing students to focus on their studies - I accepted it.

Since then, I have come to fully appreciate the cleaning staff's hard work and positive presence. Every day, I am greeted with friendly smiles, warm acknowledgments and upbeat attitudes. I have discovered that the entire H&D staff, from the custodial staff to the chefs to the repair crew, contributes greatly to the sense of community and caring on campus.

This past weekend during Beer Bike, I was saddened to see students make huge messes at their colleges for the cleaning staff to take care of. Vomit, trash and spilled alcohol were all too common sights, and few students bothered to clean up after themselves. I realize much of these actions were accidental and certainly not done maliciously or with blatant disrespect, but I am still appalled that college students of such generally high intellect could be so careless as to not discard their cups in the trash can five feet away.

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It's Beer Bike. I get it. It's a time to let loose and get crunk. I know that we appoint extra H&D staff just to come in that Saturday to clean up after us, so that we won't have to worry about it, but it doesn't give us an excuse to completely forgo all responsibilities for our actions. Throughout the day, I kept wondering what the cleaning staff must have thought of us after seeing the mess we created. Frankly, I was embarrassed.

Perhaps it is inevitable that a few thousand drunk college kids will make a mess. But regardless of our level of intoxication, we should still try to show the cleaning staff some respect. The presence of a custodial staff on campus does not entitle students to careless, messy behavior.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not advocating putting an end to a long-standing tradition. I love Beer Bike as much as the next person. I do think, however, that some of our careless actions during the event highlight disrespectful behavior students exhibit year round, which makes me wonder: Have we become so sheltered that we are above cleaning up after ourselves? Are we really going to create more work for H&D just so we can have a messy, wild day of partying?

I don't think it has to be this way. When you have trash to throw away, don't just toss it onto the grass. When you spill food in the elevator, clean it up to the best of your ability. Pick up an empty beer can you see lying around. Every little effort we make to clean up our messes will bring us closer to showing the H&D staff that we care about them as much as they care about us.

Christine Pao is a Martel College sophomore and Thresher opinion editor.

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