Hundreds of students wore t-shirts supporting a campaign known as “Stuyspace” on Tuesday, February 5. This student initiative aims to convince students to clean up after themselves in school.
The Stuyspace campaign was first proposed by Building Stuy Community (BSC). BSC is a forum for students, parents and teachers to discuss issues about Stuyvesant. The ultimate goal of the campaign is for the administration to grant students more space to congregate during their free periods.
“The long-term goal of Stuyspace is to allocate more spaces around the school for students,” BSC co-president Philip Chang said.
BSC ordered 350 t-shirts with the words “Stuyspace, a clean place for friends” in the front. The shirts were designed by senior and Student Union (SU) Chief of Staff Scott Ritter and were paid for by the SU.
“The purpose of the shirts was a way to get the word out,” Ritter said. “It worked. People were asking what was Stuyspace.”
The t-shirts were distributed to leaders of Big Sibs, Arista, Key Club and SPARK, who then handed them out to their members. These organizations are the main supporters of the Stuyspace initiative.
“We gave out t-shirts to the club members and told them to wear them on Tuesday and to advocate what Stuyspace is,” Key Club president Richard Huang said.
In addition to the t-shirt blitz, flyers were put up around the school promoting Stuyspace. Flyers of many different colors filled whole bulletin boards and contained witty phrases urging students to clean up, as well as pictures of leaders of the major student organizations involved in Stuyspace.
“We made so many posters to prove that this is a collaborative effort, not merely of a few students, but the student body as a whole,” BSC co-president Sara Yoon said. “By featuring so many students of different social circles and grades, we wanted to convey the message of community as well as promote hype.”
According to school policy, and as stated in the student planner, students are only permitted to congregate on the first, second and fifth floors. But teachers generally let students stay on other floors, especially the third and sixth. Huang predicts that this may soon not be the case.
“People hang out there, but teachers have the right to kick us off those floors,” he said. “They’re being very lenient right now. But since they’re seeing that the floors are getting dirtier and dirtier, they’re going to start kicking people off.”
Librarian Chris Asch said that banning students from certain areas only displaces them. “The number of floors students can go to, since I came to Stuyvesant, has shrunk,” he said. “That contributes to overcrowding at the library.”
The administration has refused to provide any more official space for students because students routinely leave garbage in the hallways.
Custodian Kyle Hogan agreed that there is a problem with littering. “It’s amazing that the kids will clean up after themselves at McDonald’s but won’t clear out the tables in the cafeterias or clean up after themselves in the hallways.”
“The garbage I usually see around the atrium is food wrappers, sometimes still with food left in them, newspapers, test papers and notes,” senior Rachel London said.
“People use the term pig-‘Stuy’ and it’s true,” technology teacher James Lonardo said. “Anytime from midmorning on, it’s just filthy.”
One result of student litter is a rodent problem. Teachers and students have testified to seeing mice in the cafeteria, classrooms and school library.
“I hope the place is a little neater. I hope we can take care of the rodents. I’ve seen some roaches too,” Hogan said. “If you don’t feed them, they won’t come.”
Hogan said he hopes the Stuyspace campaign works, so he and his staff can focus on other tasks. “If we didn’t spend so much time cleaning, we would have more time for beautification projects such as cleaning desks, waxing and buffering floors, and painting,” he said.
BSC is planning to continue to promote Stuyspace in weeks to come.
“We’re writing a letter to all students and teachers to tell them what’s going on,” Chang said. “We also have a Student Union Video Homeroom that’ll play next week.” Chang also said the same video will be looped on a television set by the second floor entrance.
Ritter hoped that these ideas and the t-shirts will help keep Stuyspace in students’ minds. “We don’t want to come off as people who order students to clean up,” he said. “If students take the initiative and respect the school, I think the trust between student and staff will be reciprocated.”
“[Stuyspace] really is an optimistic effort,” said sophomore David Rice, a representative of SPARK. “It takes one person to mess up the school but many people to clean it up.”