{"id":9691,"date":"2014-10-14T13:02:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T20:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=9691"},"modified":"2014-10-14T13:12:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-14T20:12:32","slug":"camosun-staff-raise-etiquette-issues-with-gus-the-gumball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/10\/14\/camosun-staff-raise-etiquette-issues-with-gus-the-gumball\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun staff raise etiquette issues with Gus the gumball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children are always told to never swallow their gum; while this may be good advice, it might not be the right advice, as one custodian at Camosun College has found.<\/p>\n

Meet Lou Isenor. Isenor works in the library, and one particular task that he has is the removal of gum. He removes it from floors, chairs, desks, and anywhere else it may end up once you\u2019re finished chewing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just part of our everyday job, but it\u2019s one of the least favourable things that we have to do, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d says Isenor. \u201cI have to actually crawl under the tables and work with a scraper, and when it chips off it sort of flies down my shirt and gets in my hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College custodian Lou Isenor removes gum from underneath tables in the library (photo by Pascale Archibald\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One day, while chipping away and trying not to get gum in his hair, Isenor thought of a quirky fundraising idea: a gumball challenge. This consisted of donating a toonie or more for the chance to guess how much the final ball of gum would weigh after he gathered up all the gum under the tables and mushed it into one big gumball.<\/p>\n

At this point, only two tables in the library had been entirely cleaned of gum, and Isenor had a gumball that weighed 23 grams. The final gumball, nicknamed Gus, weighed 557.5g, and the winner (who guessed 550g) had a donation to United Way made in their name. End of story… or is it?<\/p>\n

Isenor and the rest of the staff turned a rather gross habit into an interesting fundraising challenge, but the fact still remains that he and the other custodians have the unpleasant job of scraping gum.<\/p>\n

Sybil Harrison, director of Learning Services at Camosun\u2019s library, has an excellent point about the unnecessary gum buildup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at it, and it all adds up, it\u2019s work for somebody, and it takes away from the enjoyment of others. Nobody should have to sit down at a table and go, \u2018That\u2019s disgusting,\u2019\u201c she says.<\/p>\n

Isenor agrees that it\u2019s most unpleasant to accidentally touch a wad of gum under a desk or chair, and he\u2019d like to see a change on campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gus the gumball up close and personal, with a coin to show size (photo by Pascale Archibald\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to see some people realize exactly how gross this ends up being, and the fact that it doesn\u2019t go away,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you smear a piece of gum on the bottom of the table, it\u2019s there until somebody like me comes along and takes it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

This habit of sticking used gum to something other than the inside of a trash bin is so pervasive among gum chewers that Singapore actually has a ban on the sale of chewing gum, and a littering fine of $1,000 for sticking it on public surfaces. Harrison says she doesn\u2019t think rules like that are necessary, but that students should be more aware of the results of their actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in saying you cannot chew gum. I really think it\u2019s about awareness,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have what we call \u2018respectful food rules\u2019 [in the library] and I just really encourage students to be thoughtful and respectful of others. It\u2019s just so simple, but we all need the reminder every once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children are always told to never swallow their gum; while this may be good advice, it might not be the right advice, as one custodian at Camosun College has found. Meet Lou Isenor. Isenor works in the library, and one particular task that he has is the removal of gum. He removes it from floors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-october-15-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9699,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691\/revisions\/9699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}