Web exclusive: Local coalition brings together students, community to clean up city

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In the morning hours after an action-packed Saturday, some students crawled out of their beds to help clean up the community.

The Community Relations Coalition, or CRC, hosted its neighborhood cleanup Sunday after the Central Michigan vs. MSU football game. About 20 students went into East Lansing and cleaned up trash from sidewalks and streets, particularly in areas concentrated with both students and permanent residents.

“It’s a visible sign that students contribute and care about this community,” said Patricia Enos, member of the CRC and assistant vice president for student affairs at MSU.

The CRC is a joint effort between the city of East Lansing and MSU to create a personal relationship between the university and the city. Students can act as interns and help plan out events such as barbecues, block parties and cleanups to bring students and residents together.

East Lansing resident Mary Douglass said she appreciates the work the CRC does for the neighborhoods. She said the cleanup, as well as the other various events the CRC holds, allow students and residents to build relationships.

“My experience is the more you know your neighbors, the more respectful you are,” Douglass said. “It’s certainly true when you get such a diverse group of lifestyles that we recognize we need to be respectful of everyone else.”

Mayor Vic Loomis also was in attendance and said the work was not only a service to the community but a way for permanent residents to see students doing positive work in the community.

“It shows that there is an ever-increasing number of students who recognize this is one community and we all live here,” he said.

Some students that came out to the event said helping the community was something they loved to do and planned to take their experience with the CRC beyond college. CRC intern and interdisciplinary studies senior Kelsey Caverly said she hopes to work in community relations or planning one day and likes the opportunities CRC has to offer.

“I like bonding with the community,” she said. “We get a lot of positive feedback from this.”

The program’s focus is on community engagement and breaking stereotypes both residents and students have about one another. CRC intern coordinator Chris Sell said sometimes there can be a disconnect between students and residents, even though they might be next-door neighbors.

“I think sometimes residents forget what it’s like to be a student,” he said. “And the students don’t know what it’s like to be a permanent resident. This is a way for them to connect and see where the other is coming from.”

Along with educating residents about students, CRC hopes to make students more aware of their neighbors who might leases longer than eight months. CRC Intern and economics junior Alex Rodriguez and CRC Intern and Residential College in the Arts and Humanities junior Rachel Kramer both geared up for the afternoon of cleaning hoping both students and residents would realize the thought behind the cleanup.

“(Students) forget that there are permanent residents next to (them),” Rodriguez said. “They figure it is not their responsibility and that someone else will clean it up.”

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