Tevin ArringtonDr. Anderson putting out old desks

Reporter

It is not often that all the departments on the campus of Mississippi University for Women come together. But during the Friday prior to fall break, all the buildings participated in “Campus Cleanup Day.”

It all started with Dr. Brian Anderson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. His original plans focused solely on disposing of outdated and unused computer equipment that had been taking up space in Painter Hall.

He knew that there was an abundance of old equipment in the English department, but was unaware of how widespread the issue of cluttered equipment was for the rest of the departments on campus. After getting in touch with Nora Miller, senior vice president for administration, they began to recognize the campus-wide issue of clutter. An announcement was put out to the all the departments to see if other offices would like to participate in clean-up day.

One of the offices that responded was the department of communication. Dr. Barry Smith, associate professor of communication and department chair, was excited about the idea. It gave him the opportunity to do away with a lot of the old material that had been accumulating that was no longer in use.

Each department had a month to ready themselves for cleanup day. As Smith explained, the items could not simply be thrown away. Most of the items were still on inventory, and each department had to fill out the proper paperwork before the item could be thrown away.

Smith devoted weeks to gathering old equipment, and following the proper procedures to get them removed. Some of the items included old TV cameras, CDs players and even old audio reel machines that had been in the building for decades.

“It was great to get rid of that stuff and not having to worry about it, to have a clean slate,” said Smith.

By the day of “Campus Cleanup”, everything was all set. Physical Plant and Resource Management worked with Anderson for the day and provided special recycling bins to place unwanted equipment in.

The communication department was all set to dispose of all the cluttered material. According to Smith, they were able to dispose of everything by lunchtime.

While it was after 3 p.m., the English department also completely finished disposing of all its supplies.

Not every building was able to get rid of all its waste. Offices like the department of Science and Mathematics will have to have a separate pick up in January to get rid of the rest of their waste.

Dr. Anderson says he will like to do another small-scale version of cleanup day in the near future, and he is happy with how the day turned out.