Okay I admit it. I’m still a smoker. One of the last hold-outs, but the campus ban on smoking hasn’t affected me much. Walking out to the sidewalk to feed my disgusting habit doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I never felt right about smoking in public anyway. I don’t smoke indoors
or in my car. I am embarrassed when my clothes absorb the stench. I immediately pop an Altoid into my mouth after a puff.
When I’m through with my cancer stick, I extinguish it and put the butt in the nearest trash receptacle. Unfortunately, I may be the only one who does this.
Since the ban took effect last summer, more and more trash is discarded daily on the steps by the Math Discovery Center, in front of an apartment building at Verdugo and Towne, and around the corner from the auditorium near the bus stop.
Not just cigarette butts, but coffee cups, cans, empty MacDonalds’ bags and assorted garbage. Students don’t want to move the 2 or 3 feet to drop their trash in the conveniently placed bins. Ashtrays have been set up on the sites and even on some city light poles as well, but once they are full, the butts get thrown on the ground. The refuse piles up on the lawn and in the bushes, despite the possible $250 fine if one is caught in the act of littering.
Frankly, I’m embarrassed by my fellow smokers. They create extra work for the already over-taxed maintenance people and leave our gorgeous campus looking like a sty. This is a combination of bad manners and sheer laziness. It makes me wonder what their homes look like.
Although smokers may be the worst offenders, they aren’t the only ones.
Whatever happened to school spirit? Students should take pride in their school as much as they do in their own homes and cars. I have witnessed people getting out of their bright and shiny BMWs and Mercedes Benzes, emptying their coffee cups, then throwing them on the ground of the parking lot. When using the campus restrooms, I have seen paper towels thrown in the urinals and slimy green hockers on the porcelain. Male students urinate on the toilet seats. Graffiti abounds on the walls.
It’s a shame that conscientious students have to suffer because so many young people were raised with such nonchalance toward their environment.
Come on folks — let’s clean it up.
