Student groups to collect cigarette butts in effort to restore campus image and promote respect for the college grounds

This Monday, a group of students in coats and ties will be walking the campus. This is an ordinary sight on our campus. But so are cigarette butts. These men—members of the Rotaract Club, Pre-health Society, Jongleurs Club and SCRAP Committee—will be cleaning up cigarette butts.

But why in coat and tie?

“It defies intution,” says Ben Brown ‘10, president of the Pre-Health Society. “It sounds like a dirty job,” but wearing a coat and tie, Ben says, “will create a professional image behind doing something admirable and simple, because it’s not really that dirty of a job to bend down pick up a butt and throw it away.”

No, smokers, this isn’t about quitting.

Jason Ferguson ‘96, Director of Admissions, told The Tiger, “If you want to smoke, that’s fine, but if there’s a smoker’s tower right there in front of you and you still want to flick your butt on the ground, to me that’s just like throwing a piece of trash out.”

Maybe you’ve noticed the appetizing jars of cigarette butts on the table at the top of the Settle Hall staircase. There’s a paper too, and it says something like “Kick the Butt.” That’s what they’re calling the campaign to pick up cigs.

It started when Assistant Dean of Admissions, Berkeley Leonard ’07, was walking on campus. “One day Ferg and I were walking from the parking lot by the church, and we were just noticing all the cigarette butts.” That’s when they decided to play a game.

“We just thought, ‘how many steps can we take before we see another cigarette butt?’ We got to the point where it was every two or three steps we took there was a cigarette butt on the ground. We just thought we needed to do something about this.”

So they did. Ferguson and Leonard took to the campus with trash bags—large ones—and latex gloves. In barely an hour, they collected enough butts to jam three large jars full of cigarette butts.
These alumni want us to think about it from their perspective, an admissions perspective. “When you give a tour, and you can’t walk more than three steps on campus without seeing a cigarette butt, it’s just not good,” said Ferguson.

For Leonard, the Homecoming opening house “was the kicker.” “We walked out from the Dining hall going towards Morton. You looked to the right, you looked to the left, and it looked like an ashtray.” The beauty of the Hampden-Sydney campus—not tobacco use—is really the issue here. As Leonard says, “That’s the thing that really gets kids here… The one thing everyone says is ‘this is such a beautiful campus,’ so we gotta do better than leaving cigarette butts on the ground.”

Drew Prehmus ‘08, Special Assistant to the President, made it clear that this is about making students “conscious” of the issue, “without them thinking, ‘this is the administration coming down on us.’” He remembers his days as a student—back when tobacco sales were temporarily halted in the T.I. and Bookstore—when students thought they had to “fight the administration.”

And the admissions staff agrees. As Director Ferguson said, “It’s just raising awareness to the guys, saying, ‘take a little pride in your home.’ We’re not saying don’t smoke, we’re just saying take a little time to put it where it needs to be when you’re done with it.” And Ferguson, an alumnus, firmly believes, “as everything should be with Hampden-Sydney, it should be a student-run, student-driven initiative, not the administration.”
Enter Ben Brown and the Poetry Society. For them, collecting cigarette butts is not only about (re)beautifying the campus, but it’s “the first event of a cascade of things.” Ben says this is “going to lead to a student art exhibition next semester” featuring “a piece of art being created purely out of cigarette butts.”

So, next week, when you see the slow walking, constantly stooping group of students in coat and tie, look at them as artists, as ambassadors for the College, protecting the beauty and marketability of the campus.
To get involved email Ben Brown at brownbm@hsc.edu

Related posts:

1. Letter to the Editor,
2. Comments on College Finances Article
3. Poetry Society Looks to Grow
4. Students Rush into a Blazing Building to Save Teammate