Prospective Temple students are bombarded with literature that demonstrates how prestigious the school is and how aesthetically pleasing the campus
is.
Yet the campus we walk on everyday looks nothing like the campus we were promised in the brochures. It is not the architecture or the dozens of smiling faces that we are missing out on. It is the overall cleanliness.
The worst parts of campus are the areas around the dorms, especially the walkway that leads to front doors of 1300 Residence Hall and in front of Tuttleman Learning Center. It is almost as if people decided to overturn all of the trash cans that are conveniently placed in front of the doors.
The area in front of Tuttleman is littered with cigarette butts and other forms of refuse.
It is not difficult to put trash where it belongs. There are multiple trash cans on every block of this campus, yet it seems like the majority of it gets dumped on the ground.
The vendors at the Anderson Hall food pad will now feel the effects of the general lack of cleanliness of the student
body. They are responsible for cleaning up after their patrons – a mandate that is simply unfair.
There is no sure-fire way to stop the obnoxious amount of littering that occurs on this campus. The efforts of the grounds crew do not go unnoticed, as they are always seen around campus. They simply cannot keep up with the amount of trash students are dumping at will. The student-to-worker ratio is just too large for them to be able to keep up with the copious amounts of trash being dumped daily.
What is worse than the current state of the campus is what is happening to the surrounding neighborhoods. Let’s be honest, Philadelphia is not exactly the cleanest city, but the areas around Temple look exceptionally bad. It is pretty obvious that the trash from campus is spilling past the borders of campus.
A perfect example of this can be witnessed everyday while walking down 12th Street. The amount of trash on the sidewalks and on the residents’ lawns is appalling. This trash clearly originated from Temple’s campus as cups and brown paper bags from the Student Center food court are everywhere.
The area behind Temple Towers looks horrendous as it is usually covered with bottles and empty cases of beer.Neighbors say there is a big difference between how the neighborhood looks when school is in session and when it is not.
“It is a shame that the area looks the way it does,” said one Yorktown resident. “I don’t understand why these kids have no respect for the area and the environment.”
Some students disagreed, saying trash should be picked up by the maintenance crew.
“As an urban dweller myself, I don’t think that the campus is that bad,” said junior Gary Traverson. “The responsibility
lies on the maintenance people to get out of their heated trucks and do their job.”
This is not a criticism of Temple’s administration. There is no way for the university to step in and regulate this matter. This is a call for the students and other patrons of this campus to show more respect and take more responsibility.
Take the extra few seconds to throw out your trash. Instead of being a rebel without a cause and flicking your cigarette butt to the ground, put it out and throw it away with the rest of the garbage.
Take some pride in the campus on which we live, work and study. This campus is the one common link that every student at Temple shares. It is about time we start treating it with the respect that it deserves.
John Lamb can be reached at
john.lamb@temple.edu.
Be the first to comment