Litter is seen outside of Stewart Hall at the University of Mississippi Wednesday. DM Photo | Payton Teffner
The University of Mississippi has won numerous awards over the years for its beautiful campus, but some worry that increasing problems with litter could cost the university its prestige.
John Polk Stewart, an Oxford resident and 1971 Ole Miss graduate, is concerned over the large amounts of litter he has been seeing recently across the university’s campus while walking to the Turner Center. He was shocked after seeing broken beer bottles, cigarette packages, red cups and even pizza boxes dispersed along Rebel Drive and in the Martin and Stockard parking lot.
“Maybe it’s the mentality. I would think if you walk outside and see four or five red cups on the curb for a week, maybe someone would pick them up,” Polk said.
Stewart wants to raise awareness to this issue and hopes that students will begin to realize that this sort of behavior does not reflect well on the university, especially after being named “Most Beautiful” in 2011 by “Newsweek,” a national magazine.
“If I came from some organization today and drove or walked up Rebel Drive, it wouldn’t be the most beautiful campus in the country. That’s for sure,” Polk said. “It would be very trashed out.”
Chandler McKinley is the chairperson for student organization Students for a Green Campus. He said he is thankful Stewart has voiced his concerns because he believes that shows the meaning behind the award of “Most Beautiful Campus.”
“This award was not won overnight, but it can be lost overnight,” McKinley said. “We need to realize how great of a campus we have and should always be working towards keeping it great.”
Although the trash may not be visible everywhere on campus, some students agree that they have experienced litter as well. “I used to see a lot of trash when I lived on campus my freshman year in the parking lot of my dorm, Stewart,” Abby Jefferies, junior exercise science major, said. “I don’t notice it much anymore like in the Circle on my way to class or anything.”
Members of Students for a Green Campus and I Tree Grove volunteers are making progress to assist issues like these.
“We have the ‘Most Beautiful Campus,’ and it wasn’t us who made it this beautiful. Our job is to maintain what has been gifted to us and respect the years of work and money that has been put into making our campus so beautiful,” McKinley said. “There is no place like Ole Miss on Earth, and we need to keep our standards high with this.”
