The Tartan

Editorials featured in the Forum section are solely the opinions of their individual authors.

No matter where I am on campus, I can almost guarantee that roughly one in six of the people around me will be wearing or have some kind of Carnegie Mellon-related merchandise. It might be some kind of sweatshirt, backpack, or water bottle. Not all of it is Carnegie Mellon merch; a lot of it comes from a department, club, or athletics. Why is there so much of it around campus?

Almost every club I have been a part of (plus the Mellon College of Science) have had some kind of merch sale every year since I have arrived on campus. If I bought something every time, I would probably have at least 20 Carnegie Mellon shirts, sweatshirts, or hoodies. I currently own (by my count) seven. Most of them I got for free at some point, but that’s still too many! I only regularly wear three of them — but what am I supposed to do with the other ones I already have?

I know people who wear some form of Carnegie Mellon merch at least twice a week, and I don’t blame them. It’s so prolific on campus — organizations are constantly selling them, departments give them out to students and TAs, and every student athlete gets some Carnegie Mellon Athletics-branded merch.

This really needs to change. Sure, merch might build “school spirit” or something like that, but do I really need 10 different shirts to do that? At the same time, if I’m part of an organization that is selling shirts, I feel obligated to buy one to support the organization, especially if I know the person who designed the shirt. There has to be a more sustainable way to do this! 

If you’re somehow not in the loop, the garment and fashion industry is a huge source of microplastics and greenhouse gas emissions, causing between eight to 10 percent of overall emissions, not to mention the number of sweatshops associated with the industry. While it is important to note that just 100 organizations are responsible for 71 percent of greenhouse gasses since 1988, this doesn’t mean Carnegie Mellon students have an excuse to be wasteful.

Students and departments need to do better when considering how to show their pride for their group, and that starts with considering how much merch they are giving out. While I don’t know which departments or schools at Carnegie Mellon give out the most merch, it shouldn’t be a competition between schools to see who spends the most money per-student on merch. 

There are ways to show pride in your school other than garments. I’m probably not going to wear my 21st Carnegie Mellon shirt, but I’d be much more likely to use a reusable water bottle enough to offset the equivalent cost of plastic water bottles. Stickers are also a lower cost option that still demonstrate school spirit. 

But what exactly should you do with the merch you already have? Unfortunately, it’s too late to go back in time and not have it made. Instead, we should focus on using the resources we have (like the seemingly endless supply of Carnegie Mellon merch) to its full extent before eventually disposing of it. Please take more time to consider what kind of merch your club is getting and if it’s really the best use of resources and your money.