If you’re hard-pressed to remember when Homecoming was, we’re right there with you. An entire weekend’s worth of Halloween shenanigans probably doesn’t help, but by our calendars, Homecoming was over almost two weeks ago.

While enjoying our weekend festivities, we noticed something: Campustown is filthy. Not “Slumdog Millionaire” filthy, mind you, but bad enough for us to notice.

What’s with the garbage everywhere? There are a few blocks between Lincoln Way and Mortensen Road that could pass for tailgate lots.

We enjoyed the lawn displays during Homecoming week when they were at their prime, but two weeks later, it’s time to finish the cleanup.

We’re pointing this out in an attempt to encourage the few houses that still have the aftermath of lawn decorations to finish the cleanup.

According to the calendar of events on the Homecoming Central Committee website, lawn displays had to be completely dismantled one week ago. While most of the structures have been torn down, piles of debris still sit in some fraternities’ front yards.

We know property management companies do a terrible job of keeping the living standard above squalor, but what’s with you party animals up on Knapp with the beer cans all over your yard? Hasn’t a city official paid a visit?

Organizations exist to hold individuals responsible, and we wonder if any action has taken place to get Campustown cleaned up in a timely manner.

Some board members were pretty anxious about publicly chastising certain greek houses’ post-apocalyptic landscaping, fearing community backlash.

The greek community is a pillar of the community. The Daily has covered greek-sponsored philanthropic events on a regular basis in the pages of our newspaper, and we’re always happy to plug tasty food for good causes.

Campustown is a great place for ISU students to live and play, and we’re happy the Government of the Student Body is backing efforts to improve the area.

Like it or not, we all represent the city, the university, our alumni and the community as a whole. This isn’t “Lord of the Flies.”

We’re not suggesting anyone needs to be fined or given some other equally futile sort of legal recourse, we’re just sick of looking at piles of rubble and walking over smashed beer cans. Ames isn’t exactly pretty this time of year, but it doesn’t have to look like a dump.

We’re pretty sure the greek houses have the manpower to have what’s left of their displays down just as fast as they were put up. We’d like to see it done. Legacy Tower and the surrounding area is most definitely a lost cause, but we’re pretty sure other areas can be solved with a rake, Hefty bag and some old-fashioned work.

We have a responsibility to ourselves and others — take care of what’s around you. We get the doom and gloom that comes with cold, rainy weather, but we need to hold ourselves accountable.