A new student organization, Go Green-Go Clean, has been founded on campus with a mission to address the garbage which litters NIU grounds, but the work shouldn’t be left to them alone.

The club’s work is inspiring, and its members deserve our praise, but it feels unfortunate that Go Green, Go Clean’s founders felt the need to construct their student organization in the first place. 

Keeping our campus clean should be a responsibility every Huskie partakes in, from students to faculty members.

Rather than filling the trash cans around campus, plastic bottles, bags and cups are never hard to spot being tossed in the breeze or spilling onto our paths. 

Garbage collects in yellowing pools at the edges of our lagoons and streams, and snags on our trees which are currently trying to bloom for spring. 

The litter is a disappointing sight, a hindrance to the natural beauty of Midwestern seasons and a danger to local wildlife. 

The state of NIU’s campus litter, of course, is likely not that different from any other university’s. Where humans gather – especially busy, hungry humans highly dependent on take-out – trash follows. However, NIU’s litter conditions are also not norms we should simply shake our heads at and feel sorry about. 

After all, NIU is not only a learning community, but a living community as well. 

Jacob Jovanovich, a junior accounting major and the SGA chair of environmental affairs, recently led an outdoors clean-up event for Earth week.

“We’ve ultimately come to the conclusion that we just need more garbage cans, but more garbage cans means we need more employees working on campus, so then we run into funding issues. So essentially the only thing that we can do about the garbage on campus for the time being is just picking it up,” Jovanovich said.

On a personal level, Jovanovich is concerned for NIU’s animal residents.

“I was super passionate about biology. Even though that’s not my major, I still have a strong respect for sustainability and conservation and whatnot,” Jovanovich said. “We have a massive diversity of wildlife on campus, particularly geese, but we have racoons living in pipes along that section of the Kishwaukee watershed and … I saw a couple little muskrats, like two muskrats, but they’re drinking around all this garbage.”

Campus life is especially busy at the end of the semester, and there is no expectation that every student will drop their final reports and begin purging our campus of litter; however, simply holding onto your trash until you reach the next garbage can goes a long way. 

If you do have the time, commitment and passion, there is a real satisfaction that exists in an afternoon of picking up litter. Choose a sunny day, grab some garbage bags and some friends and embark on your unusual treasure hunt. 

You’ll leave feeling better than when you began.

April has concluded, but we can celebrate Earth month any time of the year. For the sake of the squirrels, the geese and the fuzzy goslings they’re raising, but also for our own personal enjoyment and to exhibit pride in our school, let’s offer NIU’s grounds a well-deserved makeover.