Paper #1 First Draft

College Campuses are “Going Green”

Now, more than ever it seems, people are taking an interest in “going green”. Countless amounts of people and establishments are doing their part to save the environment; this includes college campuses all across the nation.

According to www.census.gov, there were roughly 18.4 million college students enrolled in the fall of 2008, in the United States. With the trend of campuses getting involved and doing their part to keep our earth “green”, this soon could make quite an impact on our environment.

Daniel Horgan, of USA Today, referred to this movement as a “youthquake of activism”. Students attending Duke University rallied at a basketball game sporting shirts that said: “Bleed blue, Live Green”, to voice their passion for the environment. An economics professor, at Lewis and Clark College, by the name of Eban Goodstein, founded a non-profit organization called Focus the Nation. This organization was created to spur environmental activism. All the way across the country, 85 faculty members from the University of Vermont were involved with this organization. It is safe to say that this trend is sweeping the nation.

Water conservation is a huge issue and is getting a lot of attention. A few ways students can save water is by shortening showers, and limiting dish usage in school cafeterias. “Most of the 3,800 institutions of higher education in the U.S. have engaged in some sort of water-saving program” says Niles Barnes of the AASHE. The AASHE is the Advancement of the Sustainability in Higher Education. These institutions are saving water, and saving money. Another large issue getting a lot of attention, and that cannot be stressed enough, is recycling. From paper all the way to plastic water bottles, there is a lot that can be recycled on a college campus. www.organicconsumers.org states that, “Going green has meant changes in the way colleges maintain their grounds, construct their buildings, perform their research and even teach their courses.”

College students who take part in these efforts will hopefully keep this with them long after they graduate. According to www.thedailygreen.com, “The initiatives that are emerging are models for the larger society, and the students pushing for them will be taking these lessons with them, too, as they enter the work force after graduation.”



2 Comments »

  1.   Laura Said:

    on September 10, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Good topic; many people, especially students, are very interested in going green lately. I would like to know how Morningside is going green though, maybe put a few examples from our campus in your paper.

  2.   cmy002 Said:

    on September 10, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    I think that this was an interesting paper. I liked all the facts that you provided! It was interesting to learn that 3,800 institutions of higher education are involved in water saving programs. I like how you end the article with the quote about students taking with them what they have learned.

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