By Ryan Allen Wight, Copyeditor
Students Concerned with Sustainability at Western New England University (SCS at WNE) is an undergraduate student committee put together by Dr. Karl Martini. The committee includes Grant Manley, Alexis Pudimat, Neil Adams, Lauren Jablonski, and Meaghan Brady.
The committee started with Dean Martini’s Honors lab class, Our Changing Climate, which Pudimat and Manley both took last Spring. The final project asked each student to write a letter to a specific department on campus that asks about their environmental policies and procedures.
An entire semester of learning about climate change culminated in this final project, but then it was just done — they had only learned. Seeing this, Martini reached out to the whole class about the possibility of a student committee on climate change initiatives, and Pudimat and Manley responded.
Neil Adams joined Martini, Pudimat and Manley as a representative from Student Senate. Meaghan Brady joined because she is President of the Sunrise Club on campus. Lauren Jablonski heard about the committee through Pudimat and joined as well.
SCS has three stated goals. First, the committee aims to raise awareness and encourage conversations in the Golden Bear Community about the importance of sustainability and the threats posed by climate change.
Second, they aim to learn more about the current environmental programs at Western New England University, and work to improve these programs and possibly start new ones. Third, the committee will work with the administration to make campus-wide changes that both lower Western New England University’s carbon footprint and promote the positive, sustainable image of the university
This semester, the committee has had two meetings of note with administration at Western New England University. The first meeting was with our Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Basil Stewart. Since any initiative must be financially feasible, the committee started here to understand our budget.
During their meeting, the committee learned that the environmental impact of Western New England University’s financial investments — which include stocks, bonds, and other long term investments — is rated B; this rating is assigned by the financial firm that manages our institution’s portfolio. Stewart and SCS also discussed switching to solar power, which would benefit the environment and save money long-term. However, our contract with our energy provider was recently renewed, so a switch to solar would require extensive renegotiation of that contract.
In SCS’ second administration meeting, they met with the Assistant Director of Facilities Management, Christopher Freitag, and the Director of Residence Life, Chris Mckenzie Willenbrock. Topics discussed included recycling
A few things for which SCS asked included four-slot style recycling bins in dorms, better recycling signage in Gateway, and more trash/recycling sheds in Gateway, Evergreen, and Southwood. Freitag agreed that signage needs to improve.
Freitag shared in the meeting how much Western New England University has done and continues to do in terms of recycling and other climate-conscious procedures. The institution has never done single-stream recycling, and its attempts in the past to increase individual recycling options on campus have often been cut short by lack of student body cooperation. That is, every time trash was put in recycling and plastic was put in the trash, an employee had to re-sort the bins.
SCS will convene next semester to meet with Western New England University’s new Vice President of Student Affairs. This will be their third meeting with administration. In the meantime, they are planning the work they will do moving forward.
In the Spring of 2022, SCS will develop programming with Chris Willenbrock and the Resident Advisors that will teach students — especially lower class students — about recycling and climate change in order to make better recycling on campus possible. The administration has always wanted to do what is best — now the students need to put their discardables in the right boxes.
SCS also wants to pour into our annual Earth Day event, which is a collaborative effort between the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and Sunrise Club. This event is another great opportunity to raise awareness and inspire responsibility in students. Options they are considering include having the event more than once each year and getting upper administration involved as a way of conferring importance on the topic and connecting the students and administration on crucial issues.
When I spoke with the committee, Martini mentioned that much of what the University has done in the past has faded out in recent years, but the committee “can help restart” a lot of those programs. Manley added to this, saying that the committee – and the student body at large – “didn’t know what the University was doing” and finding was the first step.
Manley mentioned how Brady had told him that when people ask her questions, it’s almost always about recycling. Manley used to preface his question: “What if most people on campus know about” our recycling procedures and other environmental considerations at our institution “and can give an answer” when asked about them?
How far can we get just by asking what the institution is doing and showing student interest in environmental issues? This is the committee’s driving question. And while they ask and learn, SCS intends to work behind the scenes to strategize and — as put by Jablonski — “help create programs that help other people learn” about climate change and environmental policies at Western New England University.
