The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/2005/11/04/baker_13

November 4, 2005 > Opinion > Runners: Stop or clean Baker 13 butt-prints

Runners: Stop or clean Baker 13 butt-prints

We are ashamed whenever we see custodial staff cleaning shaving cream off of windows after Baker 13 — particularly after Halloween, when the mess is most widespread. Running around campus wearing nothing but shaving cream is generally an innocuous activity — a little shaving cream in the grass will evaporate — but it becomes disrespectful when it escalates to dirtying windows and creating unpleasant work for the staff. Custodians have enough to do around campus without wiping students’ butt-prints.

It’s OK for students to make asses out of themselves — we appreciate the stress relief Baker 13 provides. We just think the event could be more respectful, and still just as fun, if the runners either stopped rubbing themselves against windows or woke up at the butt-crack of dawn on the morning after each run to clean up. If individual runners cannot be trusted to wash off their own butt-prints, the job should be Club 13’s, not the staff’s.

More generally, many of the best moments at Rice — such as Willy Week jacks and large parties — involve messes which are left for the staff to pick up. Not only is this unfair to the people who work around the clock to make the campus beautiful, but it also jeopardizes the existence of these traditions because they become a burden to the non-students at the university.

A little personal responsibility from students will not ruin Baker 13 and other Rice traditions; it will just increase the likelihood that these traditions will be around for years to come.

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