Many of you may have noticed a major change upon return to campus this year- a new environmental theme. From coffee mugs to a lecture series, Plymouth State University is looking towards a new way of life for those on campus, following the motto “sustainable campus, sustainable world.” In a letter from University President Donald P. Wharton at the beginning of the semester, he comments, “Sustainability promotes a profound respect for the environment and looks to the conservation and wise use of all our natural resources. It implies the ability for our practices, especially in regards of our natural resources to carry us into the future without depleting these resources. As such, this theme represents a very personal challenge to each of us individually and to all of us collectively as a community.” Last week, I had the opportunity to talk with Brian Eisenhaur of the social science department about the University Environmental committee. Though this is the first year Brian has been on the committee, it has been in existence for a few years. This year, they are finally taking a more direct role in campus life. “People became aware that we didn’t have a committee on campus that addressed environmental issues for the campus. That interest is how [the UEC} started. It’s one of the unique committees on campus because it actually has a really diverse representation- faculty, students, and it has a lot of facilities people that work in the dorm and the power plants.”There are some community members that attend meetings, but for the most part, its just a campus organization. They meet one Thursday a month in Speare 122 at 8am. All are welcome to attend. There are currently ten committee members besides Brian: Len Reitsma (Biological Sciences) and Gary McCool, co-chairs, Residence Hall Director Patrick Cate, Vice President for Financial Affairs Bill Crangle, Karen DeWitt, student president of Common Ground, Purchasing and Contract Services Manager Heather Huckins, Physical Plant Director Ellen Shippee, Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Carol Sweete, and Richard Sparks of the business department.
15 goals that we would like to see happen this year.they range from organizing a lecture series with the theme of environmental justice, we have a group coming in thats going to do a review of the campous and our sustainablility programs and how we can improve them. . they are building a new dorm, we are having the same team looking at the arcitectural design plans to see the environmental condition. where does waste go from dorms and offices?environmental audit. everything across the board, and make recomendations about how we can improve our sustainablitythis has tremendous potential to influence the way we live our lives here on campus. Squam lakes natural science center internships, Theres a new organization on campus called The Center for the environment, which is supposed to help student and faculty get involved in enviro issues in our community and help facilitate research. Awhole “slew” of programs aimed at students-escpecially residents of dorms.
One of the people on the comittee is head of res life, and hes aware of that. WHat he did was sit down with all the RAs and ask ‘what could we realistically do that would effectivly improve our sustainablility on campus. Recycling was one of thekey issues. One of our goals is to have recyling facilities in the res halls by the end of the year. Theres no boubt its behind the times. Most of the universities are on baord, i dont know why we have lagged. It si something that needs to be adressed. “Its something thats not that hard to do that can make a real change”. we are an independant entity that draws from different programs for membership. one of the neat things about the committee is those people are really willing to take the ideas the committee generates and take them back to their group. We need reinforcement. Students need to say they need these things.”Thats the kind of thing that adds to the momentum. If they want to get involed, get involved. And one of the easiest way to do that is to join Common Ground, the student environmental organization. They organize all kinds of activities on campus Host and organize eath day celebration every year. Trying this year to arrange other events…periodically. Karen Dewiitt is head of common ground. every month starting next month someone will speak about environmental concerns,. The first group mined uranium during the cold war, and the govt is not too forthright in compensating them for their illnesses so they are doing a presentation on their research on that. They have testified before congress on this issue, and some laws have come directly from their research, These people have dedicated their lives. Hanaway in Silver. Phill Brown, a Civil Action from woburn MA. He is the soc. who uncovered that phenomenon. Green mapping project in Silver. This semester there are maps of plymouth on the walls and what we are tryingf to do is get anyone who passes through to identify either enviro opportunities or hiking places or services that are in the community. You dont just look at these maps, youre supposed to go draw on them and say ‘oh, i know theres a trail here. and at the end, we assemble it into a data base. people can find out everything from where to recycle to where to take a walk with a great view. We are also interested in starting an enviro education class, teaching students how to educate others on the environment. We \are developing a partnership with the squam lakes science center where some of their folks are going to teach classroom sessions on campus, the second part of the class is going to be a practicum where the students actually go over to the science center and teach classes. we are currently trying to identify students who might be interested in doing that. It will be most successful if everyone reconizes that we have duties to do, and make noise about it.