Talking Stick - November/December 2012 - 24

speCial FoCus

well,” says Ramirez. The university was also the recent recipient of money from Green Fund Grants, which allowed them to form a sustainability education program focusing on systems-thinking and an online “virtual room” program meant to illustrate to students the effects that their personal electricity usage can have on the environment. These programs connect directly and attempt to raise awareness for the previously existing programs that approach sustainability from a residence life perspective. The university boasts two distinct sustainability programs. Battle of the Utilities is the most straightforward, a competition set up between the residence halls to see who is capable of conserving the most water and electricity. Recycle Mania,

the university’s adaptation of a national program, sets up a competition among residence halls to generate the highest weight of recyclable goods. These programs just begin to scratch the surface of the university’s sustainabilityintensive nature. According to Ramirez, during the 2010-11 school year, over 180 sustainability awareness and education programs were held in a mere eight-week period. For the future, the university hopes to place more emphasis on the Battle of the Utilities. “Most people ‘know’ to turn off the lights and water, but we need to find a way to motivate them to do so,” says Ramirez. The common thread tying all these programs together, the spark that makes them all successful, and the element that allows them to exist at all

is student involvement. “Students are innovators. They’re full of new ideas and have the motivation to try, try, and try again,” says Ramirez. “For a concept like sustainability, peer education is one of the most effective ways to break through to the student population. Students are simply more likely to listen to other students. They don’t have a vested interest in saving the university money; they have a vested interest in saving the planet.” Yet when these programs work, both parties end up benefiting. Helping the Earth is a never-ending process, but it is one that colleges and universities are finding new ways of approaching each year. tS
Erik Ziedses des Plantes
is the library intern for ACUHO-I.

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Talking Stick - November/December 2012

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