Funding for the Future of Ole Miss

The Green Initiative Fund is a fund paid for and designed by students. With this, students choose to impose a fee on themselves for important sustainability reasons to improve efficiency on the Ole Miss campus. The money that is collected by students for TGIF is used for sustainable projects across campus, as decided upon by the students at the university. TGIF reflects leadership within the university and the commitment that students have for long-term sustainability. At the proposed fee of three dollars per credit hour, student leaders were unsuccessful in passing TGIF. Now, there is a proposal for a $.50 fee per credit hour. This would still raise a large annual revenue of around $200,000, according to Jim Morrison, Director of the Campus Office of Sustainability. The money would go towards efficient dorm renovations and Rebel Pedals, a bike share program, among other things students see fit.
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.