University of Virginia Library

Sickening Sight

As a resident of the Rugby
Road area I was greeted Saturday
and Sunday morning by the sight of
an uncountable number of paper
cups, bottles, and cans strewn
indiscriminately along its axis. This
was particularly disturbing to me
and I hope a great many others.
The wholesale littering of the area
in which the fraternities are located
is inexcusable. It surely did not
improve the community's image of
them. Instead it was extremely
unsightly and extremely wasteful,
requiring a considerable expense to
pick up the refuse, borne
undoubtedly by someone other
than those responsible for the ugly
conditions. This is clear example of
the disregard for maintaining a
healthy, nice-looking environment
shown by most people as long as
they are not personally affected.

As a fraternity member, I well
realize that the major cause of the
unfortunate performance was due
to the rush functions held Friday
and Saturday nights. There should
have been better provisions made to
accommodate the number of items
which were discarded by the
first-year men as they wandered
from one house to another. To be
sure the littering was not the work
of the first-year men alone.
However, I feel that they hold a
large share of the responsibility for
the fact that it did happen.

If we students profess a genuine
interest in problems which exist
around us and demand a greater say
in the decisions which affect our
lives and those of others, we should
be able to care enough to not drop
our trash wherever it is convenient
to do so, we should care enough to
want to keep our surroundings well
kept and uncluttered by disposed
disposables. If we aren't able to
keep our present environment
clean, will we ever be able to create
the better environment we need. Or
shall we live in an endless Barracks
Road sprawl covered with several
layers of debris cast off by lazy
complacent people.

I urge the students, the
fraternities, and the IFC be
concerned with what happened on
the past weekend. I hope that steps
will be taken to prevent its
reoccurrence. (Refuse containers
should be available for use.) Let's
make sure that we don't have to
again be repulsed by the sight of
litter covering the Rugby Road
area. Better yet, let's stop littering
over the entire University. Its
wrong any where, anytime.