I love and take pride in being an MSU graduate and regularly come back to campus to cheer on the various Spartan teams. But my recent visit left me disappointed. It had nothing to do with the on-the-field and on-the-court results — I can enjoy even a hard-fought loss. I met and shared a tailgate with some great MSU students before the football game.

My disappointment came in walking across campus — south of the stadium and football building — after the game to find I was walking over what appeared to be a landfill. I’ve never seen the campus so trashed after a game, and it was to the point of being dangerous walking in the dark over broken glass, garbage and hot coals. All the folks tailgating in the lot we visited off Service Road carted their trash away after the game. What happened here? The MSU campus is annually rated one of the most beautiful in the nation but, for the first time, I was embarrassed to lead my guests through it.