Imagine having your backyard filled with a week’s worth of garbage because you lack the appropriate trash can to handle the garbage until pick-up day. What if the only alternative were a fine? Every week students living in townhouses face University fines for failures to abide by strict D.C. trash regulations. In order to alleviate this problem, the Office of Residence Life should ensure that appropriate trash cans are provided to townhouses in order to avoid unnecessary fines and improve sanitation on the streets.
Like other Georgetown residents, students living in University-owned townhouses have their trash picked up on Tuesdays and Fridays, and they are allowed to place their trash on the curb only during designated hours starting at 6:30 in the evening until 8 the following night. Although this system makes sense in theory, a large number of students don’t have city-approved trash cans and are forced to leave their trash in bags.
Unfortunately, students without trash cans are left with the choice of placing their trash by the curb during non-designated hours during the week or having it decompose in their homes or yards. Due to complaints made by non-student neighbors, ResLife has started to fine students who place their trash bags on the curb outside the designated hours.
Instead of taking this unproductive action, ResLife could better fulfill its mission statement of being “dedicated to a partnership with students, faculty, staff and students’ families” through a better assessment of the situation. Fines aren’t the best solution to this problem. Instead, what is needed is a spirit of understanding and cooperation, especially in matters residents face on a weekly basis. For all residents facing fines, ResLife should pick up the slack and supply the students with the necessary garbage cans to fulfill its goals as an organization and to keep Georgetown’s sidewalks and townhouses clean.
