I would like to take this opportunity to chastise the individuals on campus who find it acceptable to deface plant material. I find it difficult to see the pleasure in destroying the campus landscape. Seriously, I would like to know what the pleasure is. Would one of the perpetrators be so kind as to inform me?

It’s time the civil law-abiding majority of the campus population takes a stand against the few students who think it is acceptable to act with rash immaturity.

To my disgust, during the last few weeks on campus, plants have been the target of vandalism. Whether it be the grasses dug up near the Memorial Union parking structure, the newly severed conifer planted in front of Buchanan Hall or the multiple broken branches throughout campus, the vandalism is not acceptable.

On one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country we, the student body, should take pride in our surroundings. Next time you see someone disrespecting the environment you and I use every day, try to think about it in this way: They are not only disrespecting the landscape and university, but the entire student population as well.

In direct address of the perpetrators, I recommend, before you decide, it would be fun to take a drunken escapade to snap off a tree or a rage-induced trip to the nearest shrub, you first stop and think about your actions.

Then ask yourself a few simple questions: What am I going to gain from the destruction? What did the plant do to me? What kind of trouble can I get in when I get caught? You can go ahead and answer the first two. As for the last, consult the university code of conduct section 4.2.16, which protects “property or services owned or maintained by the university,” which includes university plant material.

All I’m asking is that you take a second to think before you act.

Tyler Baird is a senior in landscape architecture