1. Green Campus Student Environmental Group
January 27, 2011 meeting
Present: Kristen Dwyer, Shalonda Smith, Whitney Kelley, Colleen McSwiggin, Bill Lonneman
Regrets: Kristin George, Colton Chicketti, Maria Taske, Steve McCafferty, Kim Shibinski, Kevin Lawrence,
Jennifer Morris
Kristen discussed having our group affiliate as a student chapter of the US Green Building Council. This
would allow us to network with other student environmental/sustainability groups, provide internship
possibilities and connections to businesses, and give us access to materials and ideas. The USGBC is one
of the leading interdisciplinary organizations of its kind. Kristen will get us more info and we will
consider this possibility. Bill will look into how our group can become an official student organization
here at MSJ.
We are continuing to pursue various ideas for an energy conservation campaign, involving students and
educating the campus community. Bill suggested that we might focus our efforts by planning for an
Earth Day event for Wednesday April 20. We could see about using the quad. This could be our kick-off
for many facets of the campaign:
• Colleen and Whitney, with concerns about the infrastructure and energy usage, will investigate
ways to get discounts and donations of CFLs and power strips. Maybe Captain Power (Strip)
could make an appearance?
• Shalonda will work with Kim on tours of the library Green Roof. She and Kim are also looking
into the end-of-semester collection of items the students will be discarding; Colleen has some
experience with this kind of thing at Xavier so she will help also. Earth Day would be a great
time to blitz the campus with info on the collection and generate enthusiasm for it.
• We could do our "dorm wars" recycling competition that week also (or maybe do it the week
before and give out the prizes that day). Bill spoke with one of the RAs about recycling in the
dorms. The student said that while all of the rooms have a recycling bin, many students use it
for everything if they don't have a trash can (MSJ doesn't supply trash cans for their rooms).
Perhaps getting trash cans for the dorm rooms would be something we could look into for next
year. Steve and Colton can help organize this.
• Bill will look into getting some (recycled plastic) Frisbees, an Earth flag, and reserving the quad.
He will also look into getting the Zoo to bring some animals that day (the armadillo would be
fun!). We have a Zoo member on our College Board, so she might be able to help. We should
also let the on-campus childcare program know about this so that the children can enjoy it with
us.
• Kristin and Jennifer are looking into the double-sided copying concern; we could advertise and
promote this if it is done by April 20.
• As an aside, we could also advertise the new Academic minor in Sustainability Studies on this
day; the new program will hopefully be approved by then.
Kristen also had an idea about doing a recycled materials/glass art project; maybe make it into a
frame for an outdoor bulletin board space or something that could be attached to a building wall. It
could be a permanent art work and a place to post events and info about sustainability.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday, February 24 at 11:30. Let's work on our various aspects and
report back then!