By Katie Schleiss
Students will vote on an ASUP resolution for the creation of a "green fund," where money from tuition fees would go toward a sustainability fund to implement environmentally progressive projects. Students will vote online with the executive board elections on Feb. 24 and 25.
Last year, ASUP passed a similar resolution to create a sustainability fund. The original resolution had an opt-out clause where students who did not want to contribute could decline the charge.
However, there is no opt-out clause in the current resolution. This current resolution would create a "green fee" of $10 per semester, or $20 per year. The money will equate to roughly $76,000 per year for the fund, although the amount of money will fluctuate depending on the number of students currently enrolled.
According to Allison Able, vice president of ASUP, this sustainability fund is created based on the success of the Focus the Nation event held last year. Focus the Nation is a nationwide movement committed to providing young people with the skills and opportunities to engage their elected officials about climate and energy. It also provides venues for elected officials to talk about their initiatives and listen to their constituents.
"The Focus the Nation event set the tone for sustainability efforts," Able said. "There was a good student turnout."
Focus the Nation works with campus, faith, community, business and civic groups to accelerate the transition to clean energy on their terms. The thinking behind Focus the Nation is that young people must help lead the nation's response to climate change.
Because of the popularity of the Focus the Nation event and the amount of support the event received last April, the University of Portland needed more funding to continue these activities. President Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., created the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sustainability in response.
"The idea of the sustainability fund came as students, faculty and staff in the past few years began to realize that we need to increase our sustainability efforts on campus," economics professor and leader of the advisory committee, William Barnes, said. "We noticed that many of the schools in the region and the country are beginning these funds to create a really fun way to facilitate sustainability-related education and action on their campuses."
According to Able, the advisory committee and ASUP have a collaborative relationship together and ASUP senators created the idea for the sustainability fund with the administration's support. The idea for the sustainability fund was developed last year and the advisory committee supported it in a joint effort for creating future sustainability programs. The distribution of the funds will be initially handled by ASUP and the advisory committee, but with the hope of creating a sustainability office on campus to handle the funds in the future.
"I really think that the University of Portland is in a unique position to be leaders in the sustainability movement because of the efforts that we have already accomplished," Able said. "I also think there is a lot of student interest in sustainability on campus and this has made a huge impact on the sustainable changes being made on campus."
Tim Wigington, assistant director of strategic planning at the Office of Alumni Relations, is a member of the advisory committee and the sub-committee Action on Campus. Wigington said that the Action on Campus sub-committee started developing sustainability funds last year and the current resolution for the sustainability fund was created to help construct a vehicle for people to make donations.
"The money for the fund will be housed in ASUP with PACOS and administrative oversight, and the students will have a lot of influence pertaining to what the money will be spent on," Wigington said. "Some possibilities include carbon-neutral goals and carbon offsets. Students will be able to apply for grants for sustainability projects from the fund, such as biker commuter programs."
According to Barnes, students will inevitably have a major say, because their collective contribution to the fund will probably be largest.
UP needs a fund because it is an excellent way to highlight the importance of this issue and to bring staff, students and faculty together and get everyone involved, Barnes said. Because the urgency of climate change and other environmental issues is not going away any time soon, it's critical that educational institutions across the country step up to the plate and model more sustainable approaches, according to Barnes.
"UP is making progress in its wide-ranging sustainability efforts, but we can do better in making these efforts known and infusing it more strategically into our teaching and our campus life," Barnes said.
Barnes said that the University is doing some creative and interesting projects and a sustainability fund will help the University take these efforts to the next level. Barnes said that the University has tireless staff that helps to implement recycling programs and plant native vegetation on The Bluff and educate the students on their efforts.
"Some of the leading schools in the country are making huge efforts to approach everything they do through a sustainable lens and they are getting a lot of attention for it," Barnes said. "If you talk to the schools that have implemented these funds, they don't regret the decision. It creates a ton of excitement, and there is a lot of learning that comes from a fund like this."
The possibilities include energy efficiency projects on campus, sustainability awards for students, dorms, staff and faculty, bike mileage reimbursements, alternative energy investments like wind, solar, and geothermal, grants for creative class sustainability projects and many other possibilities.
"Ultimately, it's up to the students to decide," Wigington said.
