Diablo Valley College is a very unique, unconventional campus, with incredible beauty. I am very proud to be a DVC student and I love to walk around campus and sit in the grass or picnic tables scattered throughout.

However, I have noticed that the effort to tackle cigarette butts appears nonexistent, as they are proliferating rapidly, especially near the entrances of the campus.

Action should be taken to discourage litter; the butts being discarded have expanded well across the campus entrance, and are now found throughout campus near picnic tables and on the grass.

With all of the construction, the campus will surely be more beautiful than it has ever been.

Unless the plethora of littered cigarette butts continues to flourish at this uncontrollable rate.“Multiple times throughout the day, I have witnessed students walk to the entrance to inhale their last puff then toss the cigarette onto the ground and walk back onto campus.”

This issue appears to be a slippery slope, as the more people that will do it will surely lead to more people doing it since there is no enforcement discouraging this infectious behavior.

If throwing a cigarette on the ground is illegal around the community, punishable by a $1000 fine, why is it acceptable for DVC students to litter in plain sight?

The solution to this problem is not adding cigarette trays around the entrances of the campus to encourage smokers to congregate there, but rather enforce the litterbugs.

When students break the rules and park without a parking pass, they are cited, and must pay for their disobedience. With that being said, parking is harmless.

On the contrary, these students whose disobedience is damaging the campus, as well as the environment, should have to pay a rather large citation in attempt to keep littering illegal.

Acknowledging that it has continually neglected enforcement, and is proliferating at an obviously visual pace, it is imperative that we figure out a drastic solution soon.

Otherwise, DVC’s beauty will be as ancient as single digit tuition prices.

-Kelly Britland

DVC student