Jessica Knapp
Communicator

Walking into campus with my head held high in the sky at 1 p.m. I marvel at the natural beauty all around campus. As I walk into the Student Union Building, my eyes focus on the ground outside littered with cigarette butts, and on the inside with paper cups, remnants of somebody’s lunch and papers strewn all about.

I am disgusted by this blatant act of pollution and sheer laziness of my peers. There are garbage cans within ten feet of each couch, as well as one near each exit and an abundance right next door in the cafeteria. I want to spend 20 minutes of my own time cleaning up after my peer’s mess just for the disgusting feeling in the pit of my stomach. Sometimes I just think that it might have been a busy day, with lots of students around and maybe an event. But every day at the same time, the SUB is destroyed and the campus is covered with cigarette butts, despite the intense work the maintenance crew put into cleaning up every day.

It’s not just here; it’s anywhere people go. Fast food places where families leave trays of uneaten food and half full sodas for the workers to throw away in the garbage not five feet behind them; café’s where people leave partially consumed coffee and a now completely destroyed newspaper strewn about; and the aftermath of any large event, whether in the arena or in on the streets of Spokane, where streets and sidewalks are littered with soda cans, papers and any other well-used items.

The problem does not lie with just SFCC students who don’t clean up after each other or groups of people who think it’s ok to leave a mess for the workers to clean up later, but in American ideals of freedom. We as Americans are ok with using whatever area we can because we deserve it. We are free and have the right to be free with what we do, when we do it and how we do it. It doesn’t matter whether someone must clean up after us; it doesn’t effect us.

My point is not to make a case as to what the problem is with littering here on campus but to propose a simple solution that many mothers teach their children at a young age: pick up your toys when you’re done with them. In this case, use the trash reciprocals for their appropriate designation, take your papers with you, and take public into account when using space, other people use that space everyday. Maybe if more students started to live by this philosophy, the campus as a whole could show that we are not just a commuter campus where students come in and out, leaving behind bits and pieces of our lives, but a campus that takes pride in the facilities provided mostly by us for us.

You can contact the writer at staffwriter@spokanefalls.edu