I hope you all enjoyed W.I.L.D. I hope you didn’t encounter rude staff and volunteers. I also hope you wondered why Green Action wasn’t brought in to help make the event more sustainable. And I hope that you tried to get more than one slice of pizza—and that you succeeded.

As one of the many who goes to W.I.L.D. more for the free food and cool grass than to press up against other students and see a band (except for Guster—they’re my favorite), I was looking forward to a cheap night in good company. To my dismay, the workers at both entrances told me that my little puppy friend was not allowed into the quad. Why? I wondered. Dogs are allowed through the campus at all other times; it’s not listed in any rules anywhere; it’s not like I’m going to go mosh with a puppy in my arms. I just wanted to snatch up my free food and lay on the grass and let the puppy play. I asked the woman at the Brookings entrance why I couldn’t bring her in, and she told me it would be inhumane. Really? Inhumane? Sure, and it would be so much better for her to be left alone. The lady actually offered to hold the puppy while I got food. Um, sorry lady, I don’t think so. And thanks for making up a stupid reason not to let us have fun.

So, needless to say, I didn’t end up in the quad. My friends went and grabbed their food and met up with me later. While they were there, though, they discovered that the event was supposed to have a Green Action presence to help encourage recycling. Apparently, Team 31 had even asked for their support, and they willingly offered it. After agreeing to come up with green ideas for W.I.L.D., Green Action was all set to help out with the event. According to multiple members of Green Action, though, no one from Team 31 ever
contacted them again to allow them to get volunteers lined up.

I’m sure all greenies would approve of the reuse of the paper plates used for the free pizza. From what I’ve heard, though, anyone who had a plate in hand was not allowed to go back through the line. After the plates were thrown away, somehow it became okay for people to go back and get seconds. Um…okay…

None of these things would be so terrible if it weren’t for the people behind them. I understand that there need to be restrictions against some things, people get busy and don’t have time to coordinate with other groups and there is only so much pizza.
Really, though, each of these involves people just trying to assert authority that they don’t really have.

Do the volunteers really think they have control over the pizza line? Are people really too lazy to send an e-mail even saying “Sorry, we can’t make it work this year” to Green Action? Can we at least be polite about things? Too many times lately, I’ve seen someone try to push people around just because he or she can; too many times, I’ve seen people drop the ball and not follow through. I don’t know about you all, but I’m tired of being conscientious and dependable only to have someone shirk their commitments or fail to respond to a call or e-mail. Can we all just get our acts together and be responsible?