After exhausting all other avenues and waiting for a year and two months for recycling to hit Lipscomb, students decided on another route.
Rumor had it that students were organizing a protest aimed at raising awareness to the need for recycling on Lipscomb’s campus.
In response to that, Scott McDowell, vice president for student development and dean of campus life, and Jackson Sprayberry, SGA president, worked together to expedite the implementation of a recycling program in residence halls.
This program has been a topic of discussion between campus life and SGA over the past year. But the fact that students were organizing a protest showed their passion about recycling and a commitment to making a recycling initiative successful on campus.
Watch below for more.
Click here for another story on Lipscomb’s new recycling program.
I can’t help but wonder why these “passionate” individuals were either unable or unwilling to obtain funding from the hundreds of potential protesters to purchase a dozen blue trash bins for campus buildings. I suppose it is much more convenient to demand action (and funding) from the administration at no personal expense. If these individuals are truly passionate about their perceived responsibility to future generations, a more appropriate response would be to financially support this Earth-saving endeavor. Maybe attempts were made to gain financial support, but were not mentioned in that poignant video.
Read the most recent recycling story. It talks about the funding.
To Andrews point, are you asking relatively broke college students to pony up and pay for recycling instead of the university which has the means to do it? Not to mention the fact that LU has been bragging about its green initiatives for over a year now. This is something that is long overdue and I know has been on the minds of students for a while. There were efforts made to get sponsors and donations for different recycling bins but everything gets caught up in red tape. Personally, I dont care how it comes about, it just needs to get done at this point! We can have all the green buildings and sustainable programs we want but if we are not doing the fundamentals of basic campus-wide recycling then we should not be boasting about how green we are.
I read the more recent article and understand that a few hundred students convinced the SGA to fund the recycling initiative using student activity fees paid by all of the students, including those thousands of lost souls lacking the required passion to reach maximum sustainability. My primary concern is that a vocal minority threatens protests and demands funding from others who are content to either recycle on their own or, heaven forbid, choose to not recycle. So, SGA must now pony up green every year for the foreseeable future in order to sustain this green initiative designed to sustain the health of the green areas on our blue planet? That could put the SGA budget in the red. Also, as a graduate of the New Pepperdine University/The University Formerly Known As Lipscomb, calling these students broke does a disservice to the truly impoverished. The implementation of a campus-wide recycling program increases the effectiveness of Mr. Halford’s pitch to future sustainers torn between Lipscomb and that school down the road, so I understand why his concerns lie only with its existence and not with the manner in which it came to be.
Andrew, as Student Body President and as a friend of Adam’s, I’d like to respond to your comments.
I’d first like to invite you to read the open letter I wrote to the university on the issue of recycling, written partly because I felt the need after seeing your comments to express the intent of the program to students who still might be concerned with its implementation. It can be found here: http://www.luminationnetwork.com/2010/11/05/open-letter-from-your-sga-president/
Second, while I understand your concern with student fees being allocated to events or programs that some students disagree with, I’d like to highlight that current students – not former students – are the ones who have a voice in how student activity fees are spent. I can ensure you that the voice of current students has been one of overwhelming support and a belief that recycling is as important as trash disposal on our campus. If anything, the voice of current students “content to recycle on their own or who choose to not recycle at all” is the true voice of the minority on campus. The majority of current students either support this initiative or state the following as reasons they don’t recycle: a lack of education on why it is important, because they don’t have the capability to do so in their residence halls, and/or that if they did have the capability, they would recycle. It is for those reasons that the SGA has opted to fund this year-long endeavor.
However, as an alumnus of this university, I feel it is vitally important that your voice be heard in shaping the future of our university. It is for that reason that I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee (out of my personal funds, of course) and discuss the ways in which student fees are spent on programs such as recycling. I’m sure Adam would even be happy to join us for the discussion on this matter and also to listen to the potential advice you could give the Admissions Office on how to more effectively recruit students. My number is 615-966-5942.
I look forward to hearing from you.
As I stated before, my issue lies with individuals soliciting funding from some form of government instead of acting on their own. An objective third party could question the importance of this initiative if even its most adamant proponents are unable to financially sustain the program for just a short trial period. I think that a recycling program funded completely by willing individuals would speak volumes to the student body’s commitment to environmental stewardship. That would differentiate Lipscomb from every other school in the area. You can save your coffee money, Mr. Sprayberry, though I do appreciate the offer, however sarcastic. As Forrest said, that’s all I have to say about that.
On to other matters, it appears that I may have offended the only two people who have ever commented on a Lumination article, but I suppose that’s unavoidable when discussing events of this magnitude. Well, I’m off to buy a 200-pack of paper towels from Sam’s Club that I will immediately take to Lipscomb and recycle. Here’s to a greener future!