Over the past year, I have noticed that the lengths to which organizations have gone to advertise have reached absurdity and even the degradation of our beautiful campus. Let me explain. First of all, a strong portion of Loyola students claim to be “environmentally minded.” However, when you walk around our campus, this is not found to be so. Trash, food, and cigarette butts litter our campus. I have rarely seen students, supposedly concerned for our environment, stop and pick up the trash that occupies our backyard. Even more alarming is that a percentage of this trash consists of flyers and handbills that student organizations, concert halls, or even our very own LUCAP and SGA utilizes to invite or inform students of something. How often have we seen organizations strew their plugs all over the benches in the quad, the tables in the Danna Center, or even the grounds all over campus? Instead of walking through the Danna Center and to see ads on the walls, now we can go to the Peace Quad and sift through the trash on the ground to see which meeting happens that evening. Whatever happened to paying attention to our campus environment?However, what distresses me the most is the content of some of these advertisements and their contradiction to another of Loyola’s ‘supposed’ premises. Many of the advertisements for off-campus businesses promoting their parties blatantly use sex as a tool to draw in their targets. For example, the club ‘360’ is well known for their ads with provocative images blanketing the grounds of our campus. Recently, a company run by Loyola students has advertised for two of their parties, ‘Flirt’ and ‘Karma’, by distributing professionally-made flyers adorned with a scantily clad female on each. Undoubtedly, these ads use the female body; it merely objectifies the women’s body as bait to pull in money at the door. Shouldn’t we, at the “Critical Thinking University,” stop and realize that these ads are degrading women to a substandard level? Where is the feminism that would be appalled at these insults?If we truly are women and men with and for others, then shouldn’t we, as a student body and institution, stand up and demand that this will not happen at Loyola? Shouldn’t we mandate that our administration and our SGA make a stand? If we say one thing, we should follow it up with consistent action.

Benjamin ClapperPhilosophy/Religious Studies Sophomore