Should I help clean up after parties that I didn't attend?

[pumpkinbeast]

I live in residence, I’m still underage so I don’t drink, and because the main purpose of most residence parties seems to be drinking, I don’t attend them. However, they ask all the people who live on the respective floors to help clean up their floor from the party the next morning. It can get pretty gross sometimes, after all the drunk people run through… Should I leave the people with hangovers to take care of the mess they caused, or should I be nice and help out?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

It’s up to you. This isn’t a question of sin, but of prudence. On the one hand, it should be the responsibility of those who throw these parties to clean up their own messes. On the other hand, it’s nice to lend a hand when you don’t have other obligations to which you must attend.

I recommend talking to your residential advisor – or whoever it is from the dormitory staff who is asking everyone to pitch in, regardless of attendance – and laying out the problem. You might mention that you are happy to pitch in whenever you do not have more pressing obligations, but that it would be better to make it mandatory for those wishing to throw parties in the dorms that they must submit to the staff an advance plan for the party, including in that the information on who among the party-planners has been tasked with clean-up and their contact information so that they may be called the next day if they don’t show up and start cleaning.