Editor’s note: Changed the category this story falls under from “News” to “Culture.”
Shattered glass, empty beer cans and vomit covered the ground of Manhattan last weekend, following the 16th annual Fake Patty’s Day. It’s shameful, but it’s not the first time Manhattan has been tinged with the wrath of college drinking wreckage.
Student football tailgaters have left the Chester E. Peters Recreation Center lot and fields flooded with red solo cups. House party trash tarnishes neighborhoods and empty fast-food bags are frequent fliers in Aggieville.
If Kansas State truly is a spot we love full well, we need to start treating it as such. The respect we show for our home is a reflection of who we are as people, but right now our space isn’t a reflection of us.
Earlier this school year we stopped the vulgar University of Kansas chant and saved the Wabash. The chant was a poor representation of our character and disrespectful to all parties involved.
Instead of being rightfully proud and reverent of the Wabash’s importance in Wildcat tradition, we coated it with trash. We let a school, whose football is mediocre at best, tarnish a tradition at the heart of our football games.
The only thing good to come out of the Wabash chant is it showed we’re passionate about K-State. The problem was we were placing our passions in the wrong places. Instead of concentrating on preserving our spaces and legacy, we let our negative feelings take over.
Littering our community and campus, the home and heart of our alma mater, is just as bad, if not worse, than letting KU in on the Wabash.
When we trash our community, we’re disrespecting ourselves; ruining our homes, culture and traditions with literal junk. This is our home; quit flooding it with trash.
If you’re hosting a party, make sure you have enough trash bags and a plan for cleanup. If you have the time, recycle.
The same goes for tailgating, especially when the university trash cans start to fill up. It’s not the university’s fault there aren’t enough trash bags. It’s yours for not taking responsibility for your trash.
Leave places better than you found them, especially in Manhattan. Who knows, a clean campus could prevent a touring high school senior from going to KU.