After two and a half months of being a student at Quinnipiac University, it’s clear that there’s a lack of places to discard trash in the dining hall at the Carl Hansen Student Center on the Mount Carmel Campus. This is concerning as a student who cares about maintaining a clean campus and respecting Quinnipiac’s faculty and staff.
By my count, there are only five trash cans in the dining hall. That’s not enough to accommodate the number of students who use the dining hall on a regular basis. In the first week on campus, the dining hall was full during Thursday’s common hour. I went to throw away my trash and saw three overflowing trash cans. However, they were the closest available option.
When trying to dispose of what I had, it was like playing Jenga. “Where should I put my piece, so the tower doesn’t topple over?” I thought.
I watched as students continuously piled trash into one bin. After a while, the trash began to fall out and onto the surrounding areas. This created a problem for students and workers. The overfilling caused large, sometimes unavoidable, spillages.
These spillages are inconvenient for faculty to pick up and for students to try to avoid. It is not a pleasant sight to see dirty floors and overfilled trash cans in a nice dining hall.
The lack of adequate places to throw away garbage causes unnecessary overflow and grimy floors. This negatively impacts Quinnipiac’s image as a clean campus. If the university is willing to take charge, these problems can easily be avoided.
Theoretically, there are two simple solutions to the problem. One is to add more trash cans. The other is to move a few of the trash cans to more convenient locations throughout the dining area, thus eliminating people throwing away trash in only one specific trash can.
Simply adding one or two more trash cans would eliminate the problem of overflow, but it might also inconvenience staff. The more trash cans there are, the more the staff have to empty. This could come as an annoyance in an already stressful workday. In contrast, because there are more trash cans, they wouldn’t have to be emptied as frequently. However, it seems selfish to ask for more trash cans when faculty are the ones taking out the trash.
The best solution is to place the current trash cans in more convenient locations. By taking one of the trash cans that’s located on the far end of the upstairs dining area and relocating it to the top of the stairs by Sushi-Do, most of the problem would be solved.
The Sushi-Do area is one with high foot traffic and lots of seating. This seating becomes full during common hours and the lunch rush. By placing a trash can in this location, the disposal of trash will become more evenly dispersed. The trash cans downstairs won’t overflow because people seated in the upstairs section will have a closer location to discard their trash. Additionally, it doesn’t add another trash can that the faculty has to worry about emptying. This solution benefits the students and eases the possible strain on faculty.
If this simple change was implemented by the university, it would improve Quinnipiac’s dining experience. When there is a clear and easy solution, workers should not be subjected to cleaning up the unnecessary spills caused by overflowing trash cans and student negligence. By simply relocating one trash can, the university can get rid of a major problem that currently plagues the main dining hall and take a step towards a cleaner campus.
