Over the past few years, society has been swayed through advertising and pop culture. When Madonna began studying Kabbalah bracelets, people followed it as a fashion trend. In the same aspect, “going green” has also pulsated to being not only a fashion trend, but also an epidemic.
At the University of Tampa, sustainability has been a huge focus over the years. There have been growing signs of improvement, from recycling bins to automatic lighting in some buildings.
There are recycling bins around campus, but they are not so obvious due to UT’s co-initiative in maintaing and uploading a level of aesthetics. Instead, what a community member will find is what appears to be a trashcan, but instead of a trash slot, will be a circular opening and a small sign for cans or bottles.
In the summer of 2009, UT implemented automatic lighting switches and sensors in Vaughn Center, and since then has been adding this functionality to other buildings around campus, cutting both costs and the amount of energy consumed.
Sustainability is another program that started at UT and is heavily driven by Richard Ogorek, VP for administration and finance. Essentially, sustainability is a program that has been enforced at the workflow level. It promotes the ideology of printing only when needed. This initiative brought about the implementation of student-allocated printing costs and a shredding service for departments across campus.
In my opinion, the sustainability program has proven to decrease the amount of paper consumed this year versus last year. Just because UT is a private institute, does not make it right for some students to use a multitude of paper, and much that is unneeded. At the start of the Fall semester, students questioned the fact of paying to print after they paid to go to school here.
Since then, the topic has somewhat dissipated, probably due to the fact that some students might find it impossible for the need to print out more than 300 copies per semester.
But sustainability has not only affected students. As aforementioned, this policy promotes paper recycling. This policy has been somewhat invasive on me as an editor for The Minaret. In the beginning of the semester, I wanted to revamp the look of paper on campus. With that new look would come actual newspaper boxes, similar to the ones used by such publications like The Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg Times and Creative Loafing.
Unfortunately, my request for new boxes was declined. It was assumed to bring an increase in circulation, when, in fact, my goal was to redistribute to newer locations that would actually see higher levels of traffic, thereby, having a higher pickup ratio.
My reference to this incident is not to bash the sustainability program, but rather, shed light on the dedication this university has taken to “keeping green.” I only hope that this does not affect the further development of other departments or organizations. To show our appreciation for the environment, The Minaret released its first ever “Green Issue” printed with soy-based ink on 10% recycled newsprint paper.
The Editorial Board can be reached at editor@theminaretonline.com or you may submit a Letter to the Editor form online at http://www.theminaretonline.com.