‘A Disappointment’: Temple University Hires Workers To Help Clean After Students Reportedly Dumped Trash
Temple University is responding to complaints from North Philadelphia residents who claim students left piles of garbage after moving in and out of their off-campus apartments.
The institution, which boasts a slew of famous alums, including Tamron Hall, Jesse Williams, and Jill Scott, sent out dozens of crew members to shovel and clear out furniture and piles of junk left wildly on sidewalks, according to 3CBS Philly.
While talking to the news station about the clean-up efforts, Darnell Scott, one of the many people helping to clear the mess, told reporters about his team’s objective.
“We’re on a mission,” he shared. “We’re gonna try to help Temple University and the city of Philadelphia to get rid of some of this ugliness.”
Scott works with One Day At a Time, a community-based organization contracted by Temple to pick up trash off city streets and sidewalks in North Philly.
When CBS’s Matt Petrillo asked, “How did it get so bad?” Temple Director of Community and Neighbor Affairs Andrea Swan admitted, “It’s a disappointment.”
Swan added, “We try to encourage our students to donate unwanted items. That doesn’t always happen; that’s pretty obvious. So we’re doing the best that we can with the resources that we have.”
The school has since hired three trash companies to assist. Temple police and the school's football team have also joined.
The university said in a statement that it was disappointed some students chose not to use the dumpsters, but it was not reflective of the student community.
