LETTER: Respect the campus walks

Editor,

This morning I walked up the steps of Old Main Hill with more disgust and anger than I ever have. Labeled neatly on every step of the journey was the word “poop.” Walking up the steps of Old Main Hill is the way that I and many other students get to school every day. Being assaulted by such a stupid word more than 100 times in less than five minutes is disturbing, if not upsetting. It upsets me that people can’t have a little more pride in their school and community in which they live.

Even though this word is written in sidewalk chalk and is essentially harmless, it is just not something I really want to read the whole way up. “Look away if you don’t like it,” some may say. I say, “Smash my toes on every stair if I don’t look.” I would be in favor of someone placing a positive word on those steps, but a word that is in essence “waste” is worthless. The fact that someone would spend that much time doing something that dumb is disturbing as well as immature.

It seems to me that people in general have begun to lose some pride in what they do and how they do it. Over the past few months I have really begun to notice litter on campus. I have seen candy wrappers, newspaper ads, campaign flyers and many other things strewn about campus. This is disappointing. This is our university and most of us want the most out of the experience that we are paying for. My suggestion? Take some pride in ourselves and our school and make an effort to keep things a little cleaner and improve our vocabulary with positive words instead of “poop.”

Jed Grant