We have all heard the cheer, “It’s great — to be — a Florida Gator!” It is usually chanted after a football victory as the crowd exits Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. We all feel great about our team and our school. Have you ever wondered what it is like to be an actual alligator living on campus?
If you walk along Lake Alice, it is easy to find alligators soaking up the sunshine, but you can find other “gator holes” on campus where the alligators do not appear in a majestic setting.
Off Gale Lemerand Drive, across from the band’s practice field and the parking garage, there is a drainage canal where an alligator normally lies in plain sight. Just up the road, on the corner of Gale Lemerand and Museum Road, you just might spot a gator hiding among the vegetation in the drainage ditch. In places such as these ponds and ditches around campus, there is something else that you are likely to find with ease: trash.
All over campus, there are garbage bins accompanied by a couple of recycling receptacles. Still, there is litter left on the grass and in the bushes. Much of this garbage ends up in a drainage ditch and gets carried away by storm runoff to the same corners of campus where you may find our school’s mascot, along with other wildlife.
Although the courtyard in the middle of campus may appear tidy and clean, other secluded and forgotten corners of campus are riddled with Aquafina bottles, Chick-fil-A boxes and Subway wrappers.
Are we a Student Body that thinks out of sight, out of mind? Or do we take pride in knowing we are a Student Body that will make changes in the world both seen and unseen? I feel we are the latter, and as ecological issues arise, we will tackle them.
The issue of litter on campus has been around for a long time now. We all need to be more responsible and keep our campus clean, not just for ourselves, but also for the alligators and other wildlife we are so fortunate to have on campus with us. Then we can all cheer that it’s great to be a Florida Gator.
Phillip Rodgers is a wildlife ecology and conservation senior. This guest column ran on page 7 on 11/25/2013 under the headline "Is it great to be a gator at UF?"
