By Alexa Low

Only a couple weeks into the semester, Quincy University residence halls are already having an issue with trash in the dorms, specifically Padua Hall.

Dumpsters are located across the parking lot from the dorm, but trash inside the building is becoming a problem.

Students have started to leave their trash in the small bathroom trash cans or outside of their dorm rooms to rot.

Andrea Gruger, director of housing operations and orientation, says they are aware of the problem and students will be fined if it continues.

“We charge per instance and per bag so let’s say a trash item, if someone leaves a pizza box one day it’s a $75 charge the same as if they left a bag of trash so it’s just a flat rate to be consistent,” Gruger said.

Residents of Padua Hall who take out their trash regularly are not too happy with their fellow classmates who choose to leave their trash in the halls.

“Putting stuff in the [bathroom] trash cans like that’s kind of an easy thing but once it gets to the point where it’s over flowing and in the hallways, it’s kind of bad,” Will Henegar, Padua resident, said.

The fine will consist of $75 per item or per instance. If residence life is not able to identify who the trash belongs too, the whole floor could get fined. If the problem cannot be pinned down to one floor, the whole building could get fined.

At the end of last semester, a similar issue was happening in Friar’s Hall after the nearest dumpster was removed, leaving the closest dumpsters either in Padua Hall parking lot or the back of Francis Hall.

Students began placing their trash in the surrounding cans outside of Friars Hall. Residence Life reacted by removing the trash cans from the outside doors of Friars Hall in an effort to keep students from placing their trash in those cans instead of the dumpster down the street.

“We’ll just have to remove trash cans from places if that becomes an issue so that’s one of the things that could happen,” Gruger said.

Gruger says trash cans around Padua Hall may be removed if they start to overflow with personal trash.

“Just pick up your stuff, it’s nasty,” Henegar stated.