Opinion

Get your filthy butts away from here

Cigarette smokers need to help keep our campus clean

By Carmen Michaud

Posted on March 23, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

Walking around the campus can be thoroughly disgusting for those who don’t smoke. There are cigarette butts all over the ground on campus, especially near the ashtrays provided.

People stand around these cans, yet they don’t seem to be able to put them into the cans provided. There are cigarette butts all over our beautiful campus. Students should start having respect for their campus. Whether they are part-time or full-time students, smokers should pay attention to how their campus looks.

You may think I’m not a smoker, but I am. I don’t throw butts on the ground. I put my butts in my cigarette pack or I don’t smoke at all. I don’t live on campus, but I can imagine how disgusted those who don’t smoke, especially families, feel when they visit. I am just as disgusted about seeing butts on the ground when I walk around campus as others might feel. How hard can it be to wait for a smoke? I am 46 years old and one of those ANTS, as someone so graciously called us adult non-traditional students during the fall semester of 2005. I am also old enough to realize that the younger generations of smokers don’t seem to care about a lot of things. They especially don’t seem to care about the place where they spend their time away from home.

There happens to be a butt can in front of Memorial Union at the entrance near Starbucks. I have been keeping an eye on it and have noticed several problems. This particular ashtray has had the top removed and placed beside it. The butt can has not been emptied for quite a while and is overflowing with cigarette butts. If the people who are in charge of this would do their jobs and empty these cans, we would not have to throw them near or beside the cans. So who is in charge of cleaning the ashtrays? During the fall semester, I saw a truck pull up and empty the ashtrays near the D.P. Corbett building. I told him how full the ashtray was in front of Memorial Union and asked him to empty it. Two hours later I went to the Union and saw that it had not been emptied. It was the same as when I went to Starbucks that morning. There were cigarette butts on the brickwork all around the can due to lack of space in the ashtray.

Another thing that really looks disgusting to me is seeing cigarette butts in the flowerpots around campus. Flowerpots are for flowers, not cigarette butts, even if it is winter. The next time you walk past a flowerpot during any time of the year, think about how beautiful it would look to see flowers or even white snow in them rather than cigarette butts.

I may not live on campus, but I care how my campus looks when I am there and so should those of you who smoke. Whether you visit the campus during semesters or stay throughout the spring, summer, fall or winter, you should care. Would you want your family members to visit and have them see all those nasty butts all over the ground? I wouldn’t, but maybe that’s the difference between ANTS and PANTS, smokers and non-smokers. Whether you’re one of those ANTS who cares or doesn’t care let the smokers of the campus know what you think about the subject.

Carmen Michaud is a masked vigilante.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.