There’s trash all over campus, but who is to blame?

- By Kyle Orr

UNT has a reputation for having a beautiful campus enriched with history, culture, and a proud student body. The UNT Facilities Department dedicates its time and energy to keeping our campus maintained to exceptional standards, whether that be through the groundskeepers timing the hedges or the custodial department maintaining squeaky-clean offices, classrooms, and common areas.

But is it time for a call to action regarding students littering on campus?

While many students are welcomed each day by aesthetically pleasing interiors, they have to wade through other areas of campus littered with napkins, cup holders, cup lids, aluminum tins, bubble wrap, discarded masks, and more.

Students have passionately voiced their disappointment in the cluttered outdoor areas and are wondering if a solution is going to come in the near future.

While the facilities department is technically responsible for campus maintenance, the Mean Green community must look within and ask whether the responsibility for outdoor trash cleanup should lie with the groundskeepers and their colleagues, or with the students themselves.

UNT seniors Logan Allison and Leslie Phillips argue that littering around campus is a problem that should not require a department that is responsible for maintaining the landscape to add litter collection to their already lengthy list of daily tasks. Instead, the responsibility should lie on the students themselves for disposing of their own waste correctly in the many accessible trash receptacles scattered throughout campus.

Both Allison and Phillips agree that basic Eagle Pride values like integrity and selflessness play a part in taking care of the home away from home for all students on campus.