The Saint

By Christopher J. Curry, Opinion Editor

The fall season, or season of Autumn rather, is arguably the best season on campus in terms of aesthetics. The leaves turn into different hues of reds, oranges, and yellows, giving our campus a remarkable feel thanks to the dense population of trees on campus. But as the leaves begin to wither away, our lovely groundskeepers are tasked with removing them. But their task is accompanied by loud noise which has left some students and faculty in a seemingly distracted mood during classes. Others worry about how removing the leaves could potentially cause harm to the ecosystem on campus by using fossil fuels and removing a source of nutrients for the grass. So there arises the question: should we leave the leaves alone?

I decided to gauge the perspective of students on campus first. I asked around and got a variety of responses. First, I asked an anonymous student whether or not he/she thought the leaves should be removed. The student responded simply, “The leaves do need to be removed for walkways as the wet leaves could be slippery. It removes the safety hazard that leaves could cause.” When asked about the use of leaf blowers and mowers which cause noise, the student responded, “I don’t find the leaf blowers to be distracting, and electric-powered blowers are not efficient enough to remove the leaves.” The student further stated “In terms of the grass and removing the leaves, I think it is good for preventing a greater need for spring cleanup.”

When asked what she thought about the leaf removal on campus, Regina Bonifazi responded, “I don’t want to walk on the sidewalk on a pile of leaves.” 

On the other side of the discussion, I asked Brooke Imrick what she thought about the leaves on campus. Her response was most certainly the most engaging and excited response I received. After a brief discussion on whether or not we should use leaf blowers, Brooke stated “I don’t know that [the leaf blowers are] a problem, I don’t think it’d be reasonable to ask the few staff we have to rake all the leaves.” Brooke continued emphatically, “Keep the leaves absolutely, 100%, they are beautiful! LET THE LEAVES BE BEAUTIFUL!”

What do you think? Should the leaves be removed for safety and aesthetic reasons, making the job of our groundskeepers more reasonable, or should we seek new alternatives to reduce the noise level on campus and protect the ecosystem?