Bringing Back Accountability

We’re not just a campus, we’re a community.

Sophia Ong

The dish return area in the West Campus dining hall often has me wondering how people who can’t stack dishes got into BU in the first place. Maybe that’s harsh, but seeing smoothies coat the conveyor or utensils scattered on the belt’s periphery makes me keenly remorseful for the workers who have to deal with the mess. 

Consider the difference with the Fenway dining hall. Students are forced to place their dirty dishes on shelves eye-level with the workers behind them, and returning dishes is usually punctuated by a “Thank you, have a nice day.” 

Our obligation to neatly stack our plates doesn’t just go away when we’re no longer face-to-face with the people who have to clean them. It remains, and yet, we reduce that obligation because we’re in a hurry or we just can’t be bothered. 

Accountability oils the gears of a community. 

We aren’t here alone. BU functions because of the respect and responsibility we have for each other. 

Living in a highly-individualistic society means often people are focused solely on themselves. This is only amplified by a growing societal reluctance to engage with each other in-person, leading to disconnection in the way we treat others. 

We are individuals, yes, but we owe things to the people around us, and it’s our responsibility to take responsibility. We ghost group projects when no one is hounding us for our part. We leave study rooms a mess because the next group is faceless. We dump our trash unsorted with the burden falling on GSU workers. 

If we want BU to stand as an institution of mutual respect and trust, we need to remember that even when the consequences of “not acting” are invisible or distant, we still retain that responsibility to act.