As a parent of a freshman, I realize that not everything about dorm life will be perfect in the first few weeks. Yet as I picked up my son from Reinert on Saturday evening, I was struck by the overflowing trashcans outside of the dorm. All three were filled to the brim and overflowing. mainly with cups and straws.
This was not a very impressive or welcoming sight to a new parent. When I drove him back on Monday afternoon, we drove through the Washington University campus to avoid traffic. There, there was no trace of trash anywhere. They were having a holiday weekend too, but they were keeping up with the trash volume somehow. On arrival at Reinert 15 minutes later, the same trashcans remained overflowing, but now had piles of trash on the ground around them. It was a sadly laughable sight. The student at the desk assured me that it would be picked up tomorrow. In the ladies room in the lobby, guess what? No, not overflowing, just no trashcan. There were even used paper towels in a pile on the floor!

The story gets even worse as I read the current University News headlines that said that the H1N1 virus was confirmed. The article outlined all of the preventative measures going on around campus such as web info, hand sanitizer, the well-prepared recovery center at Manresa and students shaking hands less often. That’s all well and good, but SLU will become a perfect breeding ground for the virus with all of that trash scattered around.

SLU should start with the basics, or everything else will become like those proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic!

–Susan Steck Fleming, R.N., M.S.N.
(Nursing ’77 Graduate ’82)