An Abomination (Edited May 1st)

André Short: Contributing Writer
Cortland-
As a resident on campus, I always enjoy seeing a group of prospective students and their families touring SUNY Cortland. The young, wide eyed teens traversing through campus remind all of us of our visit. And doing this in the winter, braving the elements, gives these high school seniors more credit. On these tours, it is the job of a current SUNY Cortland student to show those on the tour (students and parents alike) our “beautiful” campus. Yet, I wonder if they are seeing everything on the campus tour that I am as a current student?
As a tour guide, Cortland students are instructed to paint a picture of beauty on our campus. They are able to do this; however, if the people being escorted around are the slightest bit observant, they will notice our campus is not exactly what is being presented.
I would be slightly embarrassed to be leading one of these tours -and I am very embarrassed- to think they may notice a few of the eyesores in between the stops they make on the tour.

Upon returning to campus around the end of January, I had noticed the L.E.D. display board outside of Corey Union was still wishing us “Happy Holidays.” Christmas was over a month ago, Hanukkah was even further away. After this message had scrolled away a message for those touring our campus appeared. “Welcome Familys” was now shining bright. Doesn’t that thing have a spell checker? What kind of message is being sent to the tour groups as they read this? Higher education doesn’t immediately come to mind.
Each day I walk along Neubig Road I notice blue tape lining the way, no matter what side I am on. This tape is left over from August twenty-first, move in day. It was placed there to help incoming students move their belongings into their new dormitories. It has been almost six complete months since we needed this tape; why does it remain in its place serving no purpose? Perhaps the Resident Assistants in the surrounding buildings forgot about it. Perhaps they were hoping the snow plows would clear it away as the first snow fell. Perhaps they were looking farther into the future, trying to “Go Green” and reuse this tape next August. Unfortunately the entire student body and perhaps even the admissions office are suffering from this indolence.

I have consciously walked past the tape each day for the past seventeen weeks. How many other students have done the same thing? I have decided to not take it upon myself to peel this tape away from the sidewalk in order to conduct a social experiment. Unfortunately, the subjects of this experiment, the students at SUNY Cortland, are failing miserably. Will anyone take it upon themselves to clean up this mess? It is already very evident that the parties responsible for it have moved on. Perhaps now, after this article has been published, someone on this campus of over four thousand students will take it upon themselves to clean up this eyesore. They will do this not only for themselves, but their fellow students, and the potential future students of our school as well.