A bit closer to home

Okay, so my last couple of blog posts have been about stuff happening in the news, but this one is a full-on rant about something despicable that happens at my school. It happens all of the time and, quite frankly, it disgusts me.

I, for one, actually take pride in my school. I like the University of Michigan-Flint and all of its workings. With the exception of a couple of less than desirable experiences with a couple of professors and a few people, I'd like to think that my time thus far has been enjoyable.

However, I have a beef with the denizens of the University Center who have a tendency to "make themselves at home" perhaps a bit too much.

For those who aren't familiar with the University Center or the University of Michigan-Flint, it's the non-academic building on campus where students can study, participate in events, get food, and congregate. It's also home to a lot of offices, such as Student Government, Greek life, Student life, and my area, The Michigan Times. We have the privilege of not only having a Union, but a Student Loft as well.

It's a fairly nice looking building. Granted, a few parts of it look like it's still stuck in the late 70s - early 80s, but for all intents and purposes, it's a nice building.

Until you add the human element. The complacent, self-important morons who think that they can leave garbage on tables or sometimes on the floor of this building. I spend a lot of time on campus; long enough to the point where I've been asked to leave because the building was closing, and every single time I have left the building at this late hour the majority of the tables in the Student Loft and the Union is covered with garbage.

And it's not just food wrappers or containers or stuff like that. Sometimes there's still food in the baskets that have been left behind without a second thought simply for the fact that you couldn't walk an extra 5 - 10 steps to throw your shit away. Hell, I've even seen a TI-83 graphing calculator abandoned on a table in the Loft, which costs more than a pretty penny.

What people need to realize is this: the University Center is not just a hangout place for students. Believe it or not, people actually work there. In the Loft alone, you have Student Government, the LGBT center, the Greek life Adviser's office, the Director of Student life's office, the Women's center, and The Michigan Times, just to name a few. It both saddens me and frustrates me that people have more or less turned a blind eye to this easily solvable problem.

It disgusts me that I even have to bring this up. We are freaking adults, training to be professionals. You should not have to rely on facilities management or custodial services to clean up after your mess.

I don't mean to pin the blame squarely on one group or another, but I've noticed that this tendency has spiked ever since student housing has come to campus. Now, this issue may be because of them, it might be in conjunction with them, or they might not be part of the problem entirely. Either way, it's a recent trend that really needs to stop.

Moral of the story? Clean the hell up after yourself. Take some pride in your school. Show prospective students that this is a place that you actually might want to go to instead of having them take a tour of the garbage dump.

If you can't even do that, then how the hell do you expect to make it on your own?

And that's my view.

Sounds like someone needs a hobby...

Okay, so I understand that Mr. Shirvell has the freedom to vent his political opinions, no matter how wacky they may be in his spare time, but I think this really speaks measures of his level of maturity.

In the Anderson Cooper interview, he keeps on saying that this is a "political campaign" and that he's "bringing awareness" and that it's "nothing personal" against Chris Armstrong, despite the fact that on his blog, he has a picture of Armstrong with a rainbow flag with a Nazi swastika superimposed over his face with the words "Resign". I mean, it's one of the most shit hilarious MS Paint jobs I've seen in my life (you can literally tell that the guy used the "pen" tool to write the word "resign), but really?

Really?

Come on, man.

You're an assistant attorney general in a state that has three cities with some of the worst violent crime rates in the nation. You don't even know the guy, you're running this smear campaign that's bordering on character assassination against him, you're protesting outside of his house and doing shit that is bordering on stalking, and calling him "Satan's representative on the Michigan Student Assembly", simply for the fact that he's "pushing a gay agenda?"

My question for you is what do you have to prove? I mean, seriously. Even your boss is willing to throw you under the bus as far as your political opinions go.

This isn't angering or frustrating so much as it is mind boggling. Just where Mr. Shirvell is getting the idea that this is a "campaign" is curious as Armstrong has already been elected as MSA president.

Now, I've personally met Armstrong the one and only time I've gone to an MSA meeting with the SG from UM-Flint. He seemed like a pretty understandable guy who didn't seem to be pushing a "gay agenda" or anything like that. If anything, he was faced with decisions such as whether or not the Student Body of U of M would be supporting Israel or Palestine in their crisis by officially recognizing one body or the other.

However, I suppose at the end of the day, Mr. Shirvell has the freedom to write whatever he wants to write and to believe whatever he wants to believe, as long as he doesn't use his position to support that. It's a very touchy thing, being an employee of the government and being asked those questions. One thing I learned from my PR training is "don't be like Gen. McChrystal" and do something stupid on the record.

So far, Shirvell has done that, but as one private citizen to another, what axe do you have to grind against this kid?