OUR VIEW: Blue Goes Green needs competition
This semester, the Student Sustainability Office awarded grants to 100 percent of applicants. Why? Among other things, only five grant proposals were submitted. A little more competition for Blue Goes Green funds would be nice, especially since the money comes from a fee paid by every student. But how do you get students involved?
Timing may have contributed to the scarcity of applicants this semester. In March, two of the Blue Goes Green grantees were engineering students. The mechanical engineering department encourages students to apply for Blue Goes Green money to help fund their capstone projects – which only reach the grant-writing stage in the spring. We predict you’ll see more Blue Goes Green applicants next semester.
Other colleges could learn from Engineering’s example. After all, creating a greener, healthier and more efficient campus isn’t exclusively the territory of Natural Resources and Engineering. The Huntsman School of Business has a history of helping student entrepreneurs find start-up funds. Why not encourage students to start businesses or programs that fit the grant requirements?
If the student body is having trouble finding ideas, why not add a Blue Goes Green pitch to the list of persuasive essays English 2010 students need to write? Not every idea would be viable, effective or even original, but the thousands of students who take the course each semester would surely brainstorm more than five good ideas. The essays could be judged by instructors and entered in a contest across sections of the course to sift out the ideas most likely to inspire a group willing to make it happen.
Every college has something to contribute. The College of Education, the Caine College of the Arts and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences could help students start outreach programs, designed to educate and inform a more sustainable campus. The College of Agriculture could use the money to promote local food through events like Food Day. The College of Science can provide data on campus sustainability through surveys and other research.
The majority of students have never and will never need to write a grant proposal in their chosen professions. Even the most environmentally-counscious student might have trouble finding the energy to write a proposal outside of the classroom. In our eyes, the best way to get more students involved is to get more classes involved.