With our car-dependent campus, many students return to their cars in the afternoon and notice the small, colorful, square pieces of paper on their car windows. But a glimpse of one of these small parchments wedged under a windshield wiper may incite brief panic. Checking whether or not it’s a parking ticket, one can immediately recognize the obnoxious advertisements for some event, with the bright colors and sexy pictures on the cards.
But these tiny ads are more than just irritants for our commuters to deal with. They are actually contributing to the litter on campus and could, in limited circumstances, be considered vandalism.
Usually when a student finds one of these miniature party announcements, they casually throw them away or, more rudely, toss them onto the car next to her or him (a inconsiderate offense that can leave your fellow 49er in quite a bind later.)
Around 4 p.m., after many classes have ended, the parking facilities begin to look like they need relief from FEMA. Those little announcements that are designed to look so cheery and enticing with their eye-catching colors are now just polluting our community – our Beach.
The few cars that remain after the seemingly disastrous time of 4 p.m. are often left covered in these trashy images. The fact that a few of our cohorts are left on campus that late in the afternoon should elicit pity and respect within the more fortunate ones who have the privilege of enjoying the lovely springtime off campus. We certainly should not encumber them with any more obligations or tasks, like getting rid of the trash we should have taken care of.
When it rains or becomes dewy, these seemingly innocuous scraps of paper can mean catastrophe for windshields and those who sit behind them. When they become wet, these ads can transfer their images onto windshields and make car owners get out and scrub, scrap and use every sanitizing, window-cleaning fluid known to Vons.
April is right around the corner, showers and all, so please, for the sake and consideration of the people with whom you share this campus, take those ads with you when you leave campus. Don’t throw them on the ground and certainly don’t take the ad off of your car and throw it onto someone else’s.
It’s just rude and it inconveniences someone else. You are making them work harder than they already do in college, and you may even make their commute more dangerous by temporarily obstructing their vision.
To those who use these flashy cards to promote their events: Hand out your cards on campus. Don’t put your ads on people’s cars, please. Students may be a viable source of consumers and may be interested in whatever it is you’re trying to promote. But your ads detract the beauty of campus, contribute to pollution, harm the environment and even endanger students.
We should all take a more proactive approach in keeping our campus clean and our fellow students and faculty members safe. Throwing away ads instead of carelessly burdening someone else with them is a good place to start.
