Letter to the Editor:
Vote yes on sustainability
The fee would be a dollar per semester.
Published Feb. 5, 2009
Over the past few years Mizzou has seen with more frequent occurrence the issue of environmental sustainability come up on campus, with students implementing new projects and education campaigns, departments adopting new policies and even our campus administration signing the Presidents Climate Commitment. The newest issue to come up on campus is a student vote, next Monday through Wednesday, on a new sustainability fee of $1. It's a small amount, but this fee will do a lot for the campus community.
But what is "sustainability" and what is this fee going to do for the students of Mizzou anyway?
Sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of the present while still allowing future generations to meet their own needs. Factors of sustainability include resource conservation, waste management and renewable energy. One of the most recognizable symbols of sustainability is the chasing arrows that represent the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. Campuses across the nation are implementing sustainability programs that produce cost-savings and help reduce their campuses impact on the environment.
On our campus we do a pretty good job of No. 3, recycle. We have a recycling coordinator who has placed recycling bins in a large majority of campus buildings. Most of us know that plastics one and two, aluminum and glass are the types of beverages that can be recycled in Columbia. We even have a stellar cardboard recycling program on campus, having placed eleventh in the cardboard recycling bracket of the RecycleMania competition last year.
So what are we doing about reducing waste and re-using our resources? Our energy management department has done a phenomenal job of reducing campus energy consumption as the campus as grown over the last 20 years, but is that all? Can't we do more? How?
Well, students can start by passing the sustainability fee coming up this Monday. The fee is only $1 per student per semester, and each dollar will be used to bring sustainability initiatives, programming and education to the Mizzou campus. We will be able to hire eight student workers: two graduate assistants and six undergraduate "SustainaReps." These students will be tasked with researching sustainability initiatives, starting new education programs and applying for funding and grants to create a more sustainable Mizzou.
Remember that whole trayless dinning issue, where trays would be removed from dining halls to encourage students to waste less food? Did you have a strong opinion on it and not know where to voice that opinion? Well, these students would poll the student body on potential programs and figure out what the students of Mizzou would like to see, then work with campus administration to see those programs come to fruition. One of their main jobs would be advocating for the cost-savings of those programs to go straight back to the students who supported it: your pockets.
This coming Monday, Feb. 9, starting at 6 p.m. you will be able to make a positive change on Mizzou's campus by creating this new fee. Thanks to an overall decrease in student fees this year, if we approve this new fee our student fees will still decrease by 34 cents. Let's make a choice as a student body to create a more sustainable atmosphere on campus and start reducing our resource consumption through student efforts. Let's vote YES for sustainability!
Patrick Margherio
President, Sustain Mizzou
PatrickMargherio@mizzou.edu