Volunteers help keep campus clean

Photos: Fan Wang and Guillermo Villanueva

About 100 UIC staff members volunteered their time May 29 to clean up parts of the east and west sides of campus, as well as surrounding Chicago communities.

In one morning, 270 pounds of trash and 35 pounds of recyclables were removed during the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Spring Campus and Community Clean-Up.

“It was the first time we’ve ever held the event and getting that many volunteers — it was a success,” said John Coronado, vice chancellor for administrative services.

“It’s a great way of giving back and showing to the campus community that we care about cleanliness and we take pride in the campus, and we want to maintain its cleanliness and appearance as best we can.”

Volunteers were put on teams and given rakes, brooms, shovels, gloves and bags to work in their designated cleanup areas near Taylor and Morgan streets on the east side of campus and around the hospital on the west side of campus. They sorted litter into landfill and recyclable bags.

“We were able to capture all those recyclables that would have maybe gone into the landfill or stayed on the ground,” said Lisa Sanzenbacher, assistant director for sustainability projects in the Office of Sustainability. “We had folks who came up to us after cleaning and they said they were really happy that they did it.”

Coronado said he plans to continue the spring cleanup efforts on a larger scale in the future.

“My intent is to make this an annual event and to see it grow bigger over the years and have other campus organizations and units participate as well,” he said. “We covered a small fraction of UIC’s 200-plus acres.”