I know it’s kind of silly, but I’ve been thinking a lot about trash…
We had this discussion on campus, at our FlexDay, back at the beginning of the semester. And a group of faculty and classified and I got together in a room and we were talking about the things that folks say about our community and one of the things they were talking about was that Laney of often seen as being dirty. So I started to really think about it and think about what’s my part? And that we can keep a clean campus community that folks can feel pride about. We spend so many of our hours here, going to school, working, studying, this really is a lot like our home.
We have this AMAZING team of custodians and grounds crew that are working tirelessly to keep the campus clean and to clean our facilities and our classrooms. But there is a reality to the fact that some of what I’ve seen around campus when I’m walking around is not just the things they should be cleaning; that are the responsibilities of our custodians and our ground crew, but really, it’s our own personal responsibility.
I walked on campus the other day and I took a pair of tongs and I was walking around with a garbage can and just on my walk from one meeting to the next, and just in that walk across the quad, I found a bag full of trash.
It was things like peoples’ plates, and little packets from your ketchup, or your mustard, it was napkins and receipts, pieces of paper, gloves, and cups. People had even almost made it directly to the trashcan and just hadn’t done enough.
And so I started to think to myself:
Would I do this in my own home? What’s my responsibility?
And so, I think my thought today is about what we all can do to keep this campus clean, how we can show this campus LOVE, and the respect it deserves.
That requires each and every one of us to show some Laney love. To throw our trash in the trash receptacles, to pick up after ourselves and to really hold each other accountable to the same standard, because it really isn’t the job of our custodians and our grounds folks to pick up our trash. It to clean the facilities and the place. It’s not to walk behind us every time.
So my gratitude to all of you who have helped and joined this campaign and thanks to our ground and custodial crew!
