UNK students in the Honors Program helped clean up the greenery outside of Men’s Hall. At this student-led event, participants removed overgrown weeds and leaves and prepared to lay mulch.
Austin Dubas, a UNK senior in the Honors Program said one purpose of the project was to help make the campus look presentable for visitors.
“Ultimately we want the community to look good,” Dubas said. “We want people to come here, and one of the things they see is the landscaping. That was one of our motivations. If the landscaping doesn’t always look the greatest, you kind of have to take that initiative.”
The cleanup happened on Saturday, Sept. 28., but Eileen Jahn, the outreach coordinator for the Honors Program, said the project really started in spring 2024 when Dubas took the initiative to clean up the landscaping of Men’s Hall.
Jahn said a group of students spontaneously joined in with his efforts, and it was decided to set up a formal clean-up day.
She also said this project allows students to get outside and do something other than schoolwork and had a message for the honors students.
“Thank you,” Jahn said. “It makes Men’s Hall so much more beautiful. When students come to visit UNK and ask about the Honors Program, I think it really speaks that they took the initiative to do it themselves, that they cared enough to do it and that they love Men’s Hall enough to do it. I think for prospective students it’s important for them to see that they can be a part of something here.”
Honors students also had help from UNK facilities, which provided them with tools.
Scott Walker, the grounds services supervisor at UNK, said facilities has supported the project through a hands-off approach.
“We provided every resource we could as far as hand tools, a dump trailer and a UTV so they could haul the stuff off to where they needed to,” Walker said. “We provided a little bit of guidance on drainage and the landscape aesthetics part of it. Other than that, the students have pretty much been doing 100 percent of it, we’ve just been providing the resources we can.”
Another motivation behind the cleanup was to help out UNK facility workers.
“What I would like to see is possibly finding a way to help facilities clean up other buildings around campus,” Dubas said. “I know even now we have some shortages in staff so it’s a lot harder to get to all of the areas. Maybe us being that extra labor for them would be beneficial.”
Walker said facilities greatly value the help from students.
“I want to thank them for everything,” Walker said. “They’re doing a great job and I can’t wait to see it done. It takes a great load off of our backs, any support or involvement does. We’re there to help too. It’s very much appreciated.”
Dubas said honors students plan to continue doing this cleanup twice a year, first in the spring and then in the fall.
The project not only helped the honors community cosmetically, but socially as well.
“No matter what, if you have a community you can always do things with that community, even if it’s small things like this,” Dubas said. “As we continued to build on the community we already had, it worked really well. Also, relying on those in our community has been very important. To be able to rely on others and trust them has been very insightful and very telling of the community.”
