COLUMN: Cutting corners only a sin at BYU
Fall is such a beautiful time of year at USU. The football team won their Homecoming game, students get their first-ever fall break holiday (one week from today) and my personal favorite: the leaves finally get to show their personality.
It doesn’t get much better than fall.
Of course, all those leaves could create quite a mess. Just go outside and try counting the number of them we have on all the many trees on campus. Now imagine picking them all up, one by one by one.
Somebody has to do it. Sometimes, employees of USU’s landscape operations and maintenance crew gather them with one of their riding lawn mowers. Other times they just use those nifty leaf blowers. All the same, somebody has to deal with them.
Sometimes I think it would be a great idea to gather all the leaves into one big pile on the Quad. Then, students and faculty could jump off Old Main into the leaves. Call it wishful thinking, I guess.
Regardless, I think campus landscaping looks great.
I love the trees, the many flowers, those really long grassy-looking things in front of the library, and of course, the open space of the Quad.
Kids lay out there to study, flirt with a friend or just enjoy a nap. How convenient would it be to build some brand-new building right in the middle of it? I hope they never do. The Quad is too beautiful a place.
It’s no coincidence that in 2004, USU’s campus won the first-ever America in Bloom competition for universities. The competition is run as a nationwide beautification program, and the judging committee named us No. 1 out of all other competing universities. Interestingly enough, BYU won the same award the following year. Of course, BYU fences off much of their open space to prevent too many students trampling over their precious grass.
A few years back, they even put up 120 infamous “Cougars don’t cut corners” signs around campus. Not too long thereafter, the student newspaper reported that all 120 signs had disappeared. Reading that newspaper, “The Daily Universe” makes you even more grateful to be an Aggie. One letter to the editor reads:
“To one corner cutter I remarked, ‘Having a little trouble figuring out what the walkways are for?’
He replied, ‘I like to walk on the grass,’ as if just liking to do something were enough reason to do it.
My reply, while pointing to a dirt path cut in the grass: ‘It kills the grass.’
His reply: ‘I don’t care.’ To which I replied in annoyance, ‘You shouldn’t be here then'”
The letter went on to say that “cutting corners is a little sin.” And on and on they went. It’s great to be an Aggie.
Here at USU, you won’t get the boot for walking on the grass. We won’t call you a sinner either. Campus grounds are meant to be enjoyed, and while a few students walking to the Business Building could spend an extra five seconds to walk on the paved sidewalks, the rest of campus is in great condition.
Thanks to the landscape operations and maintenance crew at USU, campus looks great. We all appreciate your efforts. Keep up the good work.
Jon Cox is a senior majoring in journalism. Comments can be sent to jcox@cc.usu.edu.