December 2, 2010
November 29, 2010
November 28, 2010
November 21, 2010
November 20, 2010
The Green Grove Initiative by Windham, Sinervo and Johnson
November 19, 2010
FINAL - Land Use and Biking Community by John Peters and Holt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_rfIjnuzc
November 18, 2010
November 17, 2010
November 15, 2010
November 14, 2010
November 12, 2010
Geoffrey Melcher/Bo Lewis (Oxford Bike Pathways)
Planet Forward Video for Christina Steube, Anna Malone, and Jasmine Spratt
John Peters & John Holt - Biking Community and Land Use
O.U.T. Tries to Increase Ridership
May 9, 2010
Oxford Scene Goes Green
May 3, 2010
Funding for the Future of Ole Miss
A recent focus group provided suggestions on how to make Ole Miss a greener and more efficient campus. Those at the TGIF focus group were male students, all of which are interested in making improvements in the buildings on campus. Two of the students were involved in sustainability efforts already. Matthew Archer is a student from the Students for a Greener Campus organization and Elliot Warren is an intern with the Office of Campus Sustainability. Everyone contributed ideas about how to improve on campus recycling and efficiency.
“Trash disposal would be a big thing. There was only one option. There wasn’t much of an opportunity to recycle,” said student Matthew Archer about the recycling situation in the dorms.
Another aspect of recycling on campus that TGIF could improve is recycling on game days. With the thousands of people that walk through the stadium gates and into the grove each season, the university could be recycling tons.
“Work with the university to find some type of product that is either number 1 or 2 plastics. If they are going to make a commitment to be more efficient on game days, that is going to have to change,” said, senior Public Policy major Elliot Warren.
TGIF is geared toward improving energy conservation, as well. The focus group recommended mandating Energy Star appliances on all dorm floors, motion sensor lights, and automatic sinks and hand dryers. If implemented, students would not be allowed to bring appliances, but would rather use the energy efficient appliances provided. This would cut down on energy used by each dorm room to refrigerate or heat food.
Along with improvement in building efficiency and recycling, TGIF also plans to improve the bike share program, Rebel Pedals, which provides students with affordable and environmentally friendly transportation. Increased access to bikes provides an alternative to driving and may promote a culture of sustainability on campus.
The focus group participants also had many ideas for ways to advance the bike share program and campus transportation in general. Ideas for Rebel Pedals included allowing students to keep bikes longer, providing access to different check out locations, and making rentals paperless. To make bike rental easier and to save paper, students could just swipe their ID cards and all of their information will be recorded into a computer, along with what time they check out and return a bike.
“You keep it for as long as you need it,” said junior, Jason Thomas, as an idea for improving Rebel Pedals.
Another growing aspect of transportation is the new Oxford-University Transit bus system. Integrated into Oxford more than a year ago, ridership is not as high as it could be. The Green Initiative Fund could promote ridership by making more students aware of the routes and times. To do this, TGIF could pay for shelters at bus stops that have the routes and times posted, create applications for smart phones that house the routes, or even create a “MapQuest” type website where riders can enter their leaving location and destination in order to find out which bus to ride, where to get on, and if needed, where to transfer to a different bus.
TGIF can make improvements in building efficiency, recycling, and Rebel Pedals, but through student fees for each credit hour, they could do a lot more. Many improvements still must be made to make the University of Mississippi a greener campus, but with the help of the student body, anything is possible.
The O.U.T.(Oxford University Transit)
The O.U.T.(Oxford University Transit)
Many people are extremely concerned about global warming and the admittance of car fumes into the air. With this growing concern, people are making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of driving time. To help those interested in helping in society, Oxford’s O.U.T. bus has created a great new alternative.
The O.U.T. Bus is a type of transportation in the city limits of Oxford, Mississippi. According to the Official City Website, there are 5 different routes and schedules. They are blue, red, green, yellow, and orange. Along every route there are bus signs along intersections and other stops.
All the different routes are used by students who are enthused about the bus services. According to one O.U.T. rider, the bus saves him a lot of money that he would e using for gas. Not only is her saving his money and not using his car, but he can use the O.U.T. bus service for free with his student I.D.
A member of the women’s Ole Miss Soccer team, Taylor Cunningham, finds the O.U.T. convenient. She likes the idea that she can wake up before she has to be ready and walk from her house across the street all in a matter of minutes. She thinks that it’s a great service. She said it makes her life and practice easier to go home without being worried about taking a car.
The overall sentiment of Oxford is that the O.U.T. bus is a great new edition. People can get around to just about any place in Oxford. There are many hotspots the O.U.T. travels to in Oxford. It stops at most apartment complexes including Campus Creek, The Exchange, Sterling, Old Taylor Place, and Lafayette Place. Various other essential stops around Oxford include the Ole Miss Campus, Wal-Mart, and the Square. Those are just a few of the many bus stops available to the citizens of Oxford.
O.U.T. is also a valuable resource for international students. The transportation service allows international students to have a mean to travel throughout Oxford. Many of these students have no vehicle to travel somewhere like Wal-Mart. The O.U.T. provides a reliable transportation to travel quickly and safely to and from campus, meanwhile, avoiding the hassle of caring their groceries home.
Many people may not actively advocate green initiatives; however it is a simple thing that is convenient and makes a big difference everyday. This service has been widely used by Ole Miss students and other Oxford citizens. Even though it may be just a convenient method of transportation, it is having a big effect on the Oxford community because this service is being utilized by many people. This service is even available to people with disabilities and all O.U.T. buses are wheelchair accessible as well as bicycle accessible. Even if you ride your bicycle for the day and get caught in the rain, you can catch the O.U.T. at any location.
The O.U.T. has brought out so many changes to the city of Oxford. Not only do people have a more convenient way to get around town, but they are helping to reduce the amount of driving time and therefore taking part of the process going green. So join the fight to help have cleaner air and find your local bus stop today!
Written by: Lindsay Burke, Brooks McClendon, Lindsey Robinson, Joshua Stanford, Darrias Thomas and Meaghan White
One of the campus slogans for Ole Miss is “Red, Blue and Green,” but where is the green? This slogan was meant to promote a campus-wide sustainability program, but many students are having trouble seeing this concept become a reality.
“I see ‘Red, Blue and Green’ banners all over campus, but I have a hard time finding recycling bins when and where I need them,” said Bo Lewis, a Senior Journalism Major.
Many Ole Miss students and residents of the Oxford community are simply not accustomed to putting forth recycling efforts because it is not part of their culture. While many people see the value of recycling, most people do not participate because of the lack of accessibility and convenience.
While attending a focus group concerning Oxford’s recycling efforts, Anna Kate Robbins, a sophomore Public Policy Leadership and English major said, “I would recycle every time I had the chance, but I’m not going to walk out of my way to go find a recycling bin.”
“I think compared to my freshman year back in 2007, I feel that they are making a considerable amount of effort and improvement. Evidence of that would be the recycling bins in the Grove, which were not there, and I think that encourages more people to recycle,” said Jay Staler, a Junior History Major
Ole Miss is trying to change the culture by implementing a recycling program. The university has taken small strides towards achieving its goal of making Ole Miss more sustainable by setting out recycling bins around campus and offering recycling in the Grove. This is a slow process, but it is starting to take off.
“The process of starting a recycling program is like a marathon. Last year we laced up our shoes, and this year we are on mile one. It’s going to be a long process,” said Jim Morrison, University of Mississippi Head of the Sustainability Department.
The city of Oxford is also doing its part by offering a curb-side pick-up service for recyclable goods. While some residents do participate in the curb-side service, there are still many residents who are not even aware that the service is offered, and that the service is provided for only $2.08 a month.
While these programs can be effective, they are not efficient due to lack of participation and funding. The University launched a sustainability program 18 months ago in hopes to create awareness across the campus but have not been successful.
In the past students have rejected The Green Initiative Fund, which would raise tuition, but there is the possibility of it passing next semester. As pointed out by Morrison, this would provide around $200,000 for the Sustainability Program on campus per semester and would allow the program to expand in both convenience and awareness for the students.
“It would be perfectly okay with me for the university to tack on a few dollars to my tuition for recycling purposes if I knew where it was going. I think most people would be okay with it,” said Amos Gibson, a Senior Business Major.
Oxford and The University of Mississippi are by no means completely sustainable, but the ball is rolling. The main focuses for the sustainability programs are recent efforts on campus and in the community such as curb-side pick-up, accessibility to recycling bins and increased awareness. The programs are in place and increasing in popularity, but amplified awareness is the key to the success of the sustainability efforts.
A Lesson in Sustainability
“They’re pretty timely on their schedules and they pretty much go anywhere around town. They pick me up and drop me off wherever I need,” says student and frequent rider NAME.
As more and more students catch on to the public transportation trend, there is an opportunity to promote O.U.T. even more by educating both students and community members about the benefits of public transportation. After O.U.T. added four new routes last November, the options for riding the bus have increased drastically. With the addition of these new routes and buses, most people agree more advertising is needed to attract riders.
“It’d make it a lot easier to have a good idea of where all the locations that they’re stopping by,” says student Brandon Sherwood when asked about better advertising. “It’d just make it a lot easier to have a consistent schedule you can follow.”
Educating students on the benefits of public transportation is essential to the growth of O.U.T. By attracting more student riders, there is the possibility of drastically easing the traffic that clogs the Ole Miss campus each day.
“By keeping it free for students we are maintaining a positive relationship between O.U.T. and the campus,” says Anne McCauley, a Project Coordinator for the Office of Sustainability.
But McCauley agrees more than a free ride is needed to attract student riders. “I think the more information students have the easier it is to ride.” She says the Office of Sustainability is working with O.U.T. to create a map with individual stops so students can better visualize where the bus runs.
But students are not the only ones who need more information on public transportation in Oxford. On campus students continuously hear about the Green Initiative, Rebel Pedals, and other groups dedicated to campus sustainability. What is needed next is a way to educate Oxford residents on the benefits of a sustainable town.
Since most people who live in Oxford own their own vehicles, many residents don’t see a personal need for public transportation in their own lives. It’s not that they don’t support O.U.T., they just haven’t been taught the benefits of public transportation.
“We do have people that depend on the bus to get from one location to the other,” says O.U.T. manager Ron Biggs.
Biggs points out that although most riders are students, faculty and staff, it’s important to remember that people in the community need the bus just as much as students.
As the focus shifts to attracting more student riders, O.U.T. must remember their riders from the community who have no other method of transportation except for the bus. By educating those Oxford residents who own a vehicle and have never ridden the bus, there is an opportunity to widen the circle of support for this growing transit system.
“I think the people who do ride it in the community really rely on it…There are a lot of wealthy people in Oxford, but there are a lot of poor people too. And those people really rely on the bus,” says Taylor McGraw, an Oxford native and chair of the Associated Student Body Affairs Committee.
O.U.T. benefits many people in this town, and educating all Oxford residents on the benefits that come from supporting this transit system will encourage the system to grow. O.U.T. is still in its growing phase, and they need all the support they can get.
Knowledge helps encourage people or groups to support something they may have known nothing about before. By educating students and community members on the impact a public transportation system can have in people’s lives, this budding transit system has the opportunity to flourish and set themselves in the ranks of a large-city transit system. A lesson in sustainability not only impacts a single person, it can impact an entire town.
May 2, 2010
Food and Water Conservation
When asked how many gallons of water he uses a day, Academic Counselor Drew Clinton guessed about 10. However, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the average person uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day.
A recent focus group explored food and water conservation, but lacked knowledge about this issue. The three group members were asked to estimate the number of gallons of water they use daily.
“Gosh I don’t know, drinking, shower, probably what you think 2-3 gallons a day,” said Pete Lewis, learning specialist with the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support. “That may be conservative, I don’t know.”
Water conservation is not thought of as a problem because many community members see it as a convenience.
“I think we don’t think of conserving often enough, and we just take for granted what we have,”
The focus group agreed that awareness is the first step to conservation.
“I think what we are doing here is a good starting point to make the university aware of how wasteful we are being, not only in the conservation of water, but food as well,” Lewis said. “Situations like we’re having here is the start to answering that.”
Another issue that demands awareness is food conservation. The Office of Campus Sustainability has claimed dining as one of their strategic areas for initiative spring 2010.
According to its Spring Preview newsletter, the office plans to explore ways to decrease the waste produced in dining and food preparation operations by enhancing recycling and exploring how to integrate composting. During the focus group for food and water conservation, participant Anne Rhodes, a learning specialist with the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support, suggested composting as a solution to food waste.
“I think there is enough sunshine here that with the garden clippings, we can compost leftover food,”
However, the group didn’t know enough about food conservation issues to fully develop any solutions and felt they needed to be more aware of the situations the community faces.
“I think it all starts with awareness, so the more you can get that word out at least you have people thinking about it,”
The Office of Campus Sustainability hosts lectures and outreach activities on campus to spread the word about sustainability projects and increase conservation efforts.
“It (conservation) can be done, but you have to talk about it and get the word out,”
Ole Miss Food and Water
There are a lot of things to consider when talking about food and water.
When eating, how often do we think about how much we get when we eat? What should be done with leftovers? How much water are we using a day? How can we conserve water? Although, many take food and water for granted, there are solutions.
A recent focus group at Ole Miss discussed food that gets thrown out and alternative procedures for using leftover food.
“Compost, that sounds like a reasonable solution,” said Drew Clinton, assistant director of academic support. “I think they could also probably sell smaller portions so that their won’t be so much that is wasted.”
He suggested that people people had the choice to buy a smaller portion of food, they might not buy a larger portion because they would not need it.
It is difficult for most people to imagine how much one person uses water a day. Water is harder to conserve than food.
People must consciously think about washing hands when using the bathroom, water the lawn, drinking water, and showering.
“I think it is more than 10 gallons,” said Anne Rhodes, a learning specialist at Ole Miss. “Between flushing toilets, dishwashers, doing laundry, showers, dishes, and watering your lawn, it’s over 10 gallons, but when I sit and think about it. I think its a lot more than 10 or 15 gallons, it’s up there.”
There are things the Oxford community can do to conserve water.
“I think it all starts with awareness,” Clinton said. “It’s hard to break old habits. However, if you get the community to buy into the problem, eventually we will get results; getting started is the hardest problem.”
The focus group agreed that conserving food and water is not just a community or university problem because it is a problem across the world. But there is a need to get started at the community level.
“It is going to have to become a community thing and they are going to have to have conversations like we are having here,” said Pete Lewis, a learning specialist with the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support. “It’s going to be hard to maintain conservation on a community level because people take so many of these things for granted.”