New group encourages 'butt grabbing' around campus

IU is known to have one of the most beautiful college campuses in the Midwest. Now, a group of students is working to ensure the campus stays that way.\nSophomore Steven Coverick recently founded the IU Cigarette Clean Up Organization, informally known as the IU Butt Club.\n"The club is a community service organization, determined to help further beautify the Indiana University campus by engaging in a variety of activities to reduce the amount of cigarette butts littered throughout University-owned property," Coverick said.\nCoverick, who is president of the organization, said he got the idea a few months ago and has since worked with a fellow student to transform the idea into an actual group. \n"Smoking is a big issue on campus," he said. "There have been many complaints of campus being littered with cigarette butts, so I decided to do something about it. So far, we've formed a constitution and it has been approved by the Student Activities Office, so it's an official organization now."\nCoverick said he plans to organize a clean-up day, or "butt-grabbing day," each semester and provide students who participate with free T-shirts. Future plans for the club include fundraising and forming committees to work toward providing more ashtrays around campus, Coverick said. \n"We're going to start with one clean-up day per semester at the beginning and work toward having a few each semester," he said. "I figure any action on the part of students will help the clean up process."\nJunior AJ Etsch, who is a member of the organization, said he was a fairly frequent smoker in the past and is looking forward to the group's effort.\n"Even when I smoked I made a conscious effort to make sure the cigarette butts ended up in the ashtrays," he said.\nEtsch lives in a fraternity and said he understands how dirty the house gets when people don't properly dispose of their cigarette butts.\n"It was always a pain to clean up after others," he said. "The goal of the group is an effort to get rid of something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place. But on a campus like this, where a significant number of people smoke, it really adds up."\nCoverick was adamant in stating the organization neither supports nor opposes the proposed smoking ban on campus.\n"There are many people that go both ways in terms of the smoking ban," he said. "This organization is objective in terms of smoking on campus. We just want to rid the campus of the cigarette butts that are lying around everywhere and make sure the campus stays beautiful."\nJunior Kristy Blum said she thinks the club is a good idea.\n"I think the clean-up days will help," she said. "And hopefully it will influence smokers to put their cigarette butts in the ashtrays. There are plenty of them all over campus."\nThe group is holding a call-out meeting from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Jan. 29 in Room 202 of the Kelley School of Business and free pizza will be served.\nStudents who are interested in joining this organization can contact Coverick at scoveric@indiana.edu. \n"I think it's a great leadership opportunity for those who participate," Coverick said. "We still need a board of directors for the group. Regardless if you're a smoker or not, this group is something anyone can take in interest in. It's not about pointing a finger at someone, but about taking an interest in your community. It's about cleaning up our beautiful campus"