Almost 300 students participated in the Undergraduate Student Government’s “Clean Up Columbus” initiative this Sunday. Credit: Sean R. Phillips | Lantern Reporter
With gloves on, trash bags and grabbers in hand, members of 68 student organizations dispersed across campus Sunday as the Undergraduate Student Government led its “Clean Up Columbus” event to support the city’s efforts to tackle litter.
The event was organized by Student Affairs Co-Directors Hallie Frigge, a third-year in English education, and Anvitha Irrinki, a fourth-year in biomedical science, who invited student organizations to participate in the event for either $100 per group or service hours.
More than 270 students attended, collecting 140 bags of trash across campus, including near the Oval and along High Street.
“People are always really excited,” Frigge said. “We have more and more people interested because it spreads by word of mouth or our social media.”
The money awarded to student organizations comes from the university’s $40 student activity fee, which is included in tuition.
“We try to give all that money back to students in ways that benefit them,” Frigge said.
Once deposited into an organization’s account, Irrinki said the funding can support future events or help smaller organizations offset membership dues and programming costs.
“There’s tons of small student orgs that have really dedicated membership[s] who might not be able to pay membership dues to do their programming,” Irrinki said. “So, here is $100 for your work.”
For other student organizations, the funding supports the community service events they organize throughout the year.
“We do blanket-making and different kinds of drives,” said Greg Morrow, a third-year in history and political science with Phi Sigma Alpha, a political science honor society. “It helps us to do other community service events for the whole org.”
Organizations that declined the financial incentive participated for service hours instead, allowing members to fulfill chapter requirements while giving back to the community.
“Our organization requires us to have a certain amount [of hours,]” said Luke Ahern, the philanthropy head of Phi Sigma Kappa and a second-year in accounting. “I try to get good events that help the community for our philanthropy.”
Students said more than incentives or requirements, a sense of responsibility drove them to take part in the clean-up.
“It’s really important that we take care of [campus],” Morrow said. “It’s our home. Even if we don’t live here, we are still here for a good amount of time.”
