Illinois Central College Student Housing Dilemma

Payton Benedict

March 3, 2023

Concerns are growing regarding trash being littered across the grounds of Campus Housing at Illinois Central College (ICC). On the East Peoria Campus, many students are looking for a simple, yet effective solution.  Students are looking to authority figures at both the student housing on campus, as well as ICC administration for a fix to the issue at hand. It is not only concerned residents who reside within Campus Housing who have taken an interest in this issue, off-campus students and student clubs have been collaborating to find a solution as well.  Administration, ICC Campus Police Dept (ICCPD) and Campus Housing officials believe it starts with change on the student side of things before any real transformations can occur.

When speaking with Katherine Warren, Director of Housing, she alluded to the fact that she believes the issue is rather simple. She explained how the ICC student housing leadership removed the lids on the dumpsters and placed mini trash cans along the sidewalk in an attempt to make trash removal easier for students. When asked if there were any other solutions they had in mind, she didn’t list any other ideas. She also stated her opinion on what more students not living on campus could be doing to help decrease the amount of trash being disposed of outside of the designated areas on campus.

“Urge students to throw away their trash. Walk the 10 feet to a dumpster,” stated Warren.

Additionally, where once stood a functioning guarded gate to aid in the accountability aspect, now stands an empty booth and broken gate that hasn’t been functioning for several years. In addition to the broken gate being a safety concern, it results in less accountability for campus residents, as well as the possibility that local residents could be causing the littered trash when attempting to utilize the campus housing dumpsters. Students proposed repairing the gate and installing additional surveillance to aid in combating the trash issue at campus housing, but officials state it is too expensive to repair.

While inquiring more on the issue, Erika Schwiderski, Police Chief at ICCPD, gave insight on the police side of the issue at hand. While she doesn’t believe there trash and littering is an issue on the main campus, she detailed the fact that problems of this nature at the dorms on campus would ultimately be more in the scope of the facilities department. 

“The facilities department has a whole grounds crew that would be the ones to oversee that or see if there are problem areas. I think they do a great job of picking up a lot of that stuff and people are fairly good about finding trash cans and campus housing is probably where people have talked about it being an issue,” said Schwiderski.

Anthony Murray, Facilities Manager, was asked multiple questions regarding the issue but failed to provide a response.

While there are some student-led efforts via organizations on campus that have scheduled cleanups to hopefully decrease the amount of visible trash and improve the overall appearance of the student housing, there seems to be a disconnect between ICC and the owners of the dorms on campus.

“ICC doesn’t own and operate campus housing. Community colleges cannot technically own and operate student housing but The Foundation, which is a separate branch of ICC, handles scholarships and donations and owns the property over there and then they contract with a management company. The people that do work in the office there are not actually ICC employees, although we obviously work very closely with them,” stated Schwiderski.

The current consequences involved with being caught littering on campus include community service and/or a $50 dollar fee added to their student account. 

In Chief Schwiderski’s view, the easiest way students at ICC can help the ongoing littering disturbances is by downloading the “Rave Guardian” app. The app allows students to be in direct contact with campus police through the app, allowing them to report littering, as well as, other safety concerns. Users also have the ability to remain anonymous when contacting police if they wish. Schwiderski is adamant that downloading the app is good at solving or preventing a variety of issues on campus and doing so can greatly improve the physical and social environment at ICC as well.