11,266 names create new sustainability fund

For the fall 2011 semester, students are urged to think about more than what classes they want to take when registering online.

Thanks to the Student Sustainability Council’s green initiative in fall of last year to petition enough signatures for the IU Sustainability Fund, students will now have the option to donate $5 when registering for classes online just by checking a box. With the help of its 18 member organizations, the SSC gathered 11,266 student signatures, an amount surpassing its quota of a quarter of the student body given by the Student Activities Office.

Jacob Bower-Bir, the logistics chair of the SSC, said the Sustainability Fund, which will be a transparent account separate from the council’s account for regular expenses, will be used to install solar panels, green rooms, more bike racks and more outdoor recycling, as well as other innovations.

“It’s the students who will decide how we’re actually going to spend the fund,” Bower-Bir said. “If you are a student organization that is recognized by the University and have a constitution, they can help vote and help decide how to spend the money.”

Although there was a large amount of students last semester petitioning signatures for the fund, Bower-Bir added that getting the initiative to kick-start was a challenge. The students could petition in only a handful of spots on campus twice a week.

“And then after the fact we had to get the Dean of Students, the Bursar’s office, the Registrar’s office, Student Activities Office, Student’s Office of Accounts — all these people had to do paperwork to make this fund actually happen,” he said.

According to the College Sustainability Report Card, which surveys more than 300 schools in the nation and Canada and is headed by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, IU-Bloomington’s 2011 grade was a B. While the category for student involvement received an A, administration, in terms of sustainability for the campus, received a B.

“Every time we do a project like this, it should be a little bit embarrassing to the administration,” Bower-Bir said. “We’re hoping in part that this is going to inspire the administration to start working toward similar projects.”

Emilie Rex, the assistant director for the Office of Sustainability — which oversees projects proposed by the SSC — said the fund was completely student-driven, a reason for why the Student Activities Office counted only student signatures.

“They’ve been working on this for several years now,” she said. “It’s been a very long road, and we can’t tell you how proud we are of the students for accomplishing the goal this year.”

The Sustainability Fund, however, is just the first of many goals the SSC plans to pursue. While signing a name and checking a box to donate $5 is a step toward improving sustainability, Bower-Bir said that checking the box should not be used as a “Band-Aid.”

“Donating to the fund does not absolve you of future good deeds,” he said. “We need people to change how they think of the environment and how they interact with it ... That’s the important thing.”