If you take a stroll around campus, you might make the following observations: students are walking to class, squirrels are jumping out of trash cans, and abandoned masks are lying on the sidewalk. 

Now that masks are required only indoors, many folks take their masks off right after they leave a building. While most will put their mask in their pocket or backpack, some let theirs fall to the ground to be forgotten forever, never to be used again.

Bottom line: Don’t just litter! At least put them in a garbage can if you really want to get rid of them.

To show how significant this phenomenon can be, we set out this week to capture the many, many left-behind masks around campus.

This mask has seen better days.

Shortlidge Road alone had at least half a dozen abandoned masks.

Double whammy with a littered mask AND McDonalds bag.

? Do you ever feel like an abandoned mask// drifting through the wind // wanting to start again? ?

Squish.

Rough day at Forum, I suppose.

We’re better than this, folks! Let’s hope we don’t find enough material for a sequel to this post.