Walking around USC's campus can be a beautiful and peaceful experience for students walking to class, a college tour or just a leisurely stroll. On most days it can be quite enjoyable to walk down Greene Street, the Horseshoe, the Pickens Street bridge and anywhere else your heart desires. However, on some days there are spots that should be avoided.
Certain places on campus that have heavy foot traffic like Greene Street, Davis Field and the Pickens Street bridge are subject to tables and tents that have one purpose: advertising. They set up in these areas to target USC student to join clubs, buy products, donate money, hand out religious pamphlets and various other reasons.
The concept of tabling might not be so bad if the people running them weren’t so aggressive. The tables run by students thrust flyers at people walking by like they have a flyer quota they need to meet before they can go home, and this may very well be the case. They also have a tendency to yell excessively loud to draw people in, but this method has always done exactly the opposite for me. I am far more reluctant to stop at someone’s table when I could hear them yelling from down the street.
There is nothing worse than trying to get to class on time and having someone stop you to take a flyer or sign up to live in an apartment. And while there are people who have the time to stop and may even be interested in what they are saying, many students consider tabling a disruption to their day.
There are certain paths around campus that can be taken to bypass these high traffic areas such as the Horseshoe, and then further down where Greene Street crosses Pickens Street to avoid the bridge. Most of the Greene Street tables are concentrated in the area in front of Russell House, so that is really the only spot on Greene Street to avoid, and students can easily avoid Davis Field by walking next to the reflection pond instead.
Another way that students can avoid this is by checking the USC event calendar. This will allow them to check when there will be large crowds and tabling in different places, letting people have the greatest campus experience possible.