By The Collegian Staff

Going to college offers students the opportunity to live and be treated like adults for, in some cases, the first time in their lives.
Some Butler University students are negatively utilizing  their college experience by damaging and trashing their respective residence areas on campus.
Students need to respect the rooms and buildings they live in. Not doing so is disrespectful, causes a mess of problems for fellow students and other Butler community members, and it ultimately reflects poorly on the university as a whole.
Butler is a home away from home for all students, and it is home to faculty, staff and other community members as well.
Damaging property and leaving trash lying around residence halls is disrespectful to other students as well as Butler’s cleaning staff and Butler Residence Life staff.
Students in all residence halls have to pay a fee at the end of each school year if enough damages are accumulated in that residence hall, said Karla Cunningham, Residence Life director.
Cunningham said the most-common problem she has heard of in residence halls is damage to exit signs above doors. She said issues such as damage to walls from moving bicycles or furniture in and out of rooms is also common.
Even if some of these occurrences can be attributed to accidents, students should be more careful when doing things in their living areas. It stands to reason that, if a student was moving furniture in his or her own home, he or she would be careful not to hit the walls or ceiling.
The same behavior should apply here, especially since all students—and not just students parents—to be responsible and  pay for such damages.
This lack of care by students was brought to light last week by Greg Harris, Residence Life coordinator.
Harris emailed all Apartment Village residents last Wednesday about students tossing garbage in areas not meant for it.
He attached pictures of large pieces of trash sitting atop and beside small wooden trash receptacles, as well as photos of garbage left in shrubbery and a parking lot.
Harris said in the email that not putting garbage in appropriate dumpsters could result in charges for all AV students at the end of the year.
Those who are not respectful of university property deserve to be charged at the end of the school year, but that is not how the system works in regard to housing damages.
Butler students need to take pride in their school.
While some might think this means praising Butler in public and supporting its athletic teams, something as simple as throwing a bag of trash into a dumpster shows a similar amount of care.
Cunningham said Residence Life staff have attempted to push a message of showing respect for students and other Butler community members when encouraging students to take care of their residence areas.
“I would hope that (we) can stress the message of respect for the facility and for other students so we don’t have future concerns,” Cunningham said. “I’m sure that students can do that, it’s not an impossible task.”
Now, the onus lies on students to practice responsible habits when it comes to keeping their residence areas clean and habitable.
Basic cleanliness in dorms and apartments will save many people time, money and headaches for the remainder of the school year.