Valiant vomit cleaners

 College life is full of fun extra-curricular activities, classes, new friends, vomit and trash. Yes, vomit and trash. 

There has been a substantial increase this year in the amount of bodily fluids and trash left in res halls for the custodial staff to clean. 

A few staff members have even been injured while cleaning due to the extremity of some messes. 

Yet one would think that cleaning up your own puke would be a reasonable assertion. We are all adults — so what is the problem? 

"It is sometimes frustrating for me to see the incongruence between student activism and student behavior," Director of Residential Life Stacey Miller said. 

Students need to take responsibility for their environment and the actions they take in it, and what those actions mean, she said. 

"We have so many students on our campus who support and fight for our staff to have a liveable wage, but then make no connection between that and the vomit in the bathroom, or the disrespect of the bus driver, or graffiti on the Davis Center," she said.

While we might wish that magic cleaning fairies really did exist, here at the University of Vermont we are lacking. In reality, hardworking people come in with plastic bags and sponges to wash someone else's vomit-covered toilet. 

Because of the diligent custodial staff, messes seem to magically "poof" away, so ignoring how that "poof" happens is easy. Students aren't required to be aware of how their messes are dealt with. 

If you break a glass or pee on the toilet seat, there is no mechanism to ensure that students are aware that a few valiant people must go to each toilet with a bottle of 409. 

Since students are not asked to be aware, they can simply pee (or puke) and leave — a hit-and-run offense. 

We, as students, need to take that extra step and become aware. 

In your own home, you would think twice about vomiting all over your mother's bathroom floor because she could ground you, take away your television privileges or make you eat your asparagus. 

While we do not have asparagus threatening us into submission, we do have our own maturity and will power. 

We are a new, strong generation. We can take the next step and think fully about the consequences of our actions. 

Expecting someone else to clean up our vomit is incredibly disrespectful. We are highly educated and responsible individuals, and we should act like it.