OUR VIEW: Green fee in action, may pay off

Last spring a school-wide vote was held during student elections to decide if student fees would be increased an additional 25 cents per credit to help fund a new council dedicated to creating campus sustainability. There was — and still is — huge debate about the value of such a council and about the value of the sustainability movement in general. In the end, however, the motion passed.

Naturally, there are arguments on both sides. Doesn’t sustainability help us save money in the long run? Well, yes it does. Wasn’t the council created, in part, to help raise money from outside sources, not just spend students’ money? Well, yes. That too. Isn’t saving the planet kind of a big deal? Most would agree, yes.

On the other hand, what’s the point of paying to create a council when large bodies of people are demonstrably willing to organize themselves and discuss these things anyway? If the coordinator to be hired is supposedly a fund raiser, why can’t he or she raise funds for the salary themselves and spare students the expense? If the Student Fee Board — which is partially composed of elected officials — struck down the motion, what’s the point in pitching it to students?

Larger questions encompass the role of government and the execution of democracy — but we won’t get into that. We also won’t get into the aforementioned arguments. Why? Because the votes have already been cast.

So, rather than complain about not getting our way or, conversely, celebrating having gotten our way, we’d like to focus on the here and now. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to say, yet.

We think it’s great some of the legwork has been done for this organization. Submitting a request for a grant is great. Defining roles for some future internships is great. Organizing a committee is great. What else ya got?

The jury is still out on whether or not our 25 cents per credit is being well spent. In the meantime, we’d like to raise our eyebrows at the president of the College Republicans.

Using scary words like “audacity” and “socialism” and phrases like “taking my ability to choose away” are great when you’re rallying your fellow died-in-the-wool right-wingers to a romantic cause — like eating pizza — but here in the real world where we think critically about issues and accept the outcome of the popular vote, the only thing this language does is remind us that some people are more determined to be heard than you are to actually make sense. Tone down the fear-inducing rhetoric and there might be room for productive conversation.

One thing we feel the Blue Goes Green folks did right is propose a course of action, rather than a list of complaints.