I bike to school daily, cutting through the parking lots of Autzen Stadium en route. Several times now I have encountered a commute that has been far from enjoyable. All of these commutes have involved an unfortunate intersection with the hordes of die-hard Duck fans that I found upon my arrival. The fans file into their lines and pop their tents up to suffer through the cold night in anticipation of that glorious slip of paper that will allow them access to the next football game. This act in itself is of no concern to me. They should be there if they want to be… I simply have some issues with the debris they leave in their wake.
As I approached their green and yellow camps on my way to class, I found that there was more garbage scattered across the entire stadium perimeter than there were students. Intermittently heaped between their sleeping forms were piles of bottles, cans, wrappers and food stuffs all discarded without care onto the ground, in the grass – anywhere but the garbage and recycling bins. What these students need to realize is that:
1.) As students of the University of Oregon, they are acting as representatives of this school. The students that left Autzen Stadium looking like a tornado had ravaged a convenience store are communicating an image of ignorance, sloth and general disrespect for the environment, the facilities provided to them by the University, and the people that use that area recreationally. These students clearly have school spirit or they would not be there in the first place, yet this spirit is not reflected in their actions. If they have pride for their school, they aren’t showing it by leaving THEIR STADIUM trashed.
2.) Littering is littering regardless of the reason it was left there. Just because these eager fans don’t recall leaving their Hostess Donettes strewn across the parking lot in a drunken daze, doesn’t mean that it’s no longer their responsibility to pick it up. The leavings of this herd damages the environment; plastic products and various containers are being left very close to a natural park setting and a prominent freshwater source. The waste that doesn’t blow into the Willamette isn’t likely recycled by the unfortunate maintenance crews who must clean up after the students.
Students that need cleaning up after? It is difficult to confront that; to suggest that college students (many of whom view themselves as independent adults who have long since abandoned the supervision of their nurturing parents) would need to be cleaned up after. This isn’t kindergarten. Yet somebody has to take care of the kids’ mess; it’s just beer bottles and Doritos now instead of glue and butcher paper.
These fans need to grow up. Their insolence has an even greater effect on me because, frankly, my student fees are paying for them to be there. I don’t know if supervision is the answer or if a simple promotion of common sense could mend this problem. We all need to take our actions into our own hands. A student body commitment to personal responsibility could be the difference between a student body that has dignity and a mob of ignorant youths that must be mothered by the maintenance crews.
Tyler Polich is a student at the University