Spring International Students Clean Up Cleveland Street Sidewalk

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Students from Spring International Language Center who volunteer to clean up trash on Cleveland Street.

For the past academic year students and others from the University of Arkansas have made the sidewalk along Cleveland Street an unofficial “smoking area.” And, for the past academic year students from the Spring International Language Center have made it their goal to clean up that area across from the Maple Hill residence halls.

The students are all members of the Spring International Student Council, international students enrolled in the center’s intensive English program. Every Friday morning at 11:30, they and at least two faculty members from the program leave their classes in Hotz Hall, grab a garbage bag, plastic gloves and as many classmates as they can and go to work on the cigarette butt-covered sidewalk and lawn.

The majority of the volunteers are not even smokers. They simply want to do what they can to keep the area clean. Their efforts have even motivated others who smoke in the area to clean things up, too.

"We really appreciate you doing this," one resident of the nearby Sunshine Place Apartments told the students.