After 16 years of effort towards a greener Morningside College campus, there is still room for improvement of the sustainability program.

John Helms, chair of the Morningside Sustainability Committee, said that in comparison to other colleges in the US, Morningside still has a long way to go. “Of the institutions that I’m most familiar with, I would say we are probably not in the top half in terms of sustainability,” Helms said.

He added that this would certainly be a goal for Morningside College.

Other institutions around the US, show what could be possible with the right attitude and will. The College of the Atlantic in Maine has implemented a zero-waste policy developed by students. Other Universities focus on decarbonization and the improvement of efficiency of their powerplants.

According to Helms, if similar systems were to be implemented at Morningside it would take a lot of cooperation between students, faculty, and administration first.

That is not the only obstacle that the Sustainability Committee at Morningside will have to overcome to reach its sustainability goal. One that still affects the recycling program today, was the switch to a different vendor three years ago, after the old vendor lost the ability to recycle plastic.

Helms said, “We were left with the choice of either continuing with the same vendor and only being able to recycle paper and cardboard or going with a new vendor and basically being able to recycle everything but with a new set-up.”

The old set-up meant gathering a group of 90-gallon rollable recycling containers centrally and dumping them into a three feet truck with hoppers. The new set-up requires dumping the rollable containers into taller containers that are located behind each of the three residence halls and the Science Center. Since this switch, the committee has been struggling with the reorganization because the logistics got harder and the basic recycling process more physically demanding.

Another obstacle is that six months ago, the new vendor Gill Hauling Inc., lost its customer for thin flexible plastic. Morningside College shares the same vendor as the residential recycling program in Sioux City. This means that all the plastics like zip-lock bags and saran wrappings that have been used in Sioux City since April ultimately ended up in a landfill.

In addition to troubles with recyclable material, the Committee has been having a hard time finding staff. Usually, it is work-study students who collect the recyclables from the containers around campus. As this is a physically demanding process that only takes a few hours per week the job does not spark the interest of many students.

Students and their awareness of environmental issues in general is another controversial point when it comes to recycling. Freshman Taylar Johnson who is involved in cleaning up the Morningside campus from litter thinks that there is not much awareness at all among students.

According to her, students don’t realize how big of a deal recycling really is. Others don’t take their civic responsibility towards the environment seriously because it would require actions like walking extra steps to a recycling bin. “I think that the people that are aware are just too lazy to use recycling bins,” Johnson said, “If there is a garbage can right there they are going to throw it into the garbage bin instead of the recycling bin.”

Karen Wascher, a member of the Morningside staff and former member of the sustainability committee, remembers the beginnings of the recycling program on campus. According to her, in 2004 there were students who didn’t know at all about recycling because it did not exist in their hometowns yet.

She added that over the years, students’ concerns about the environment have increased. Through that, awareness of environmental issues has improved but Wascher said the process of recycling was still “somewhat cumbersome” overall. This is also due to recycling being different in every municipality and students possibly being confused about different guidelines at home and College.

Helms said, “You can find students who actually have antipathy to recycling,” but added that there are a lot of students who are very committed to the cause and are willing to do volunteer work. He also said that one of his goals is getting students to talk to other students to spread awareness of recycling because “it means more to students to hear their peers talking about it.”

For interested students, the way to get involved in the recycling program is to get in touch with the SEA (Sustainable Environment Association) which is the student sustainability group on campus. SEA has established programs to clean up litter around campus and found ways to redistribute food waste of the Morningside cafeteria to charities in Siouxland.

Helms believes that working together as an organized group of students is the way to reach the sustainability goal for Morningside College. He said, “The administration wants to hear about it from students. They want to know that students have this as a value before they really go all in.”

After 16 years of efforts towards a greener Morningside College campus, there is still room for improvement of the program. Especially recycling has obstacles that need to be overcome if the College wants to reach its sustainability goal.

Despite Morningside College’s mission of “the cultivation of dedication to civic responsibility” the mentioned civic responsibility still leaves room for discussion. Especially in regard to efforts against environmental issues on campus, Morningside is not as green as it should and could be and needs improvement.

In an interview, John Helms, chair of the Morningside Sustainability Committee, said that in comparison to other colleges in the US, Morningside still has a long way to go. “Of the institutions that I’m most familiar with, I would say we are probably not in the top half in terms of sustainability,” Helms said. He added that this would certainly be a goal for Morningside College.

Other institutions around the US, show what could be possible with the right attitude and will. The College of the Atlantic in Maine has implemented a zero-waste policy developed by students. Other Universities focus on decarbonization and the improvement of efficiency of their powerplants.

According to Helms, if similar systems were to be implemented at Morningside it would take a lot of cooperation between students, faculty, and administration first.

That is not the only obstacle that the Sustainability Committee at Morningside will have to overcome to reach its sustainability goal. One that still affects the recycling program today, was the switch to a different vendor three years ago, after the old vendor lost the ability to recycle plastic.

Helms said, “We were left with the choice of either continuing with the same vendor and only being able to recycle paper and cardboard or going with a new vendor and basically being able to recycle everything but with a new set-up.” When previously dumping out smaller rollable containers into a box truck, students now have to empty the big four containers that are spread over campus. Since this switch, the committee has been struggling with the reorganization because the basic recycling process got harder.

Another obstacle is that six months ago, the new vendor Gill Hauling Inc. lost their customer for thin flexible plastic. Morningside College shares the same vendor as the residential recycling program in Sioux City. This means that all the plastics like zip-lock bags and saran wrappings that have been used in Sioux City since April ultimately ended up in a landfill.

In addition to troubles with recyclable material, the Committee has been having a hard time finding staff. Usually, it is work-study students who collect the recyclables from the containers around campus. As this is a physically demanding process that only takes a few hours per week the job does not spark the interest of many students.

The student’s awareness of environmental issues, in general, is also a controversial point when it comes to recycling.

Karen Wascher, a member of the Morningside staff and former member of the sustainability committee remembers the beginnings of the recycling program on campus. According to her, in 2004 some students didn’t know at all about recycling because it did not exist in their hometowns.

She added that over the years, students’ concerns about the environment have increased. Through that awareness of environmental issues has improved but Wascher said the process of recycling was still “somewhat cumbersome” overall. This is also due to recycling being different in every municipality and students possibly being confused about different guidelines at home and College.

Helms said, “You can find students who actually have antipathy to recycling,” but added that there are a lot of students who are very committed to the cause and are willing to do volunteer work. He also said that one of his agendas is trying to get students to talk to other students to spread awareness of recycling because “it means more to students to hear their peers talking about it.”

For interested students, the way to get involved in the recycling program is to get in touch with the SEA (Sustainable Environment Association) which is the student sustainability group on campus. SEA has established programs to clean up litter around campus and found ways to redistribute food waste of the Morningside cafeteria to charities in Siouxland.

Helms believes that working together as an organized group of students is the way to reach the sustainability goal for Morningside College. He said, “The administration wants to hear about it from students. They want to know that students have this as a value before they really go all in.”

The N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. teams increased their efforts in the Black Lives Matter campaign with several teams refusing to play in protest to the recent police shooting in Wisconsin. The leagues pledged to take action but many people are not satisfied with what is being done.

After the police brutality incident in Kenosha, Wisc. two weeks ago, the American sports world has found a new reason to reignite Black Lives Matter protests. 29-year-old Jacob Blake, an African American man, was left paralyzed after a white police officer shot him in the back seven times during an arrest.

As a response to the shooting in their own state, the Milwaukee Bucks protested against racism and police brutality by refusing to play the scheduled basketball game against Orlando Magic. As stated by Marc Stein from the New York Times, the players stayed in their locker room until the game was officially postponed.

Relating to the same issue, the Brooklyn Nets hired a new white head coach last week, former point guard Steve Nash. Regardless of Nash’s qualifications for the job, Sopan Deb from the NYT says that it brought the focus back to the fact that in the N.B.A. out of 30 head coaches in total only five are black. This has led to discussions about the league’s point of view regarding racism and diversity.

The situation shows that systematic racism and Black Lives Matter Activism leaves no part of society untouched, especially not a sports league in which, according to Deb, 80% of the players are black.

“The N.B.A. and its teams are committed to advancing diversity, including the representation of Black executives and employees,” Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman told the NYT. In the same statement, Bass added that the officials on the board are working on reducing the racist bias in the decision-making process by increasing accountability and strengthening anti-racist processes.

While the issues are not going unnoticed in the N.B.A., many people demand that more should be done to increase diversity in the league. Commissioner Adam Silver told the NYT that the N.B.A. needs to do a better job at hiring African-Americans “at every level in the league” and that there is “no doubt that more can be done internally.”

The players themselves have taken different measures to combat racism. According to Paul Frymer and Jacob Grumbach from Vox, several teams in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. followed the example of the Milwaukee Bucks and refused to play games.

As reported by Dorothy Gentry from the NYT, players like Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards opted out of playing this season to focus on resolving racial issues in the community. Individual actions like these seem to have renewed the belief around the whole N.B.A. that protesting can be effective.

And there are visible signs of progress. Deb states in his article, three N.B.A. teams hired Black executives during this summer, raising the number of nonwhite General Managers in the league to ten. Reacting to the strikes of the basketball teams, N.B.A. team owners agreed to use basketball arenas as voting locations in November. Frymer and Grumbach from Vox reported that the league also pledged to form a league-wide social-justice coalition.

The N.B.A. play-offs may have resumed but according to Gentry from the NYT, it is clear for the players that activism is becoming an inherent part of athleticism. Ted Leonsis, chief executive of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns several professional sports teams told Gentry, “Our players see injustices, and they are calling it out. They understand the tremendous influence they have to inspire an evolution in hearts and minds, and create change.”

W.N.B.A and N.B.A. players take a stand against racism while N.B.A. club officials hold on to hiring predominantly white managers.

After the police shooting incident in Kenosha, Wisc. two weeks ago, the American sports world has found a new reason to reignite Black Lives Matter protests. Black man Jacob Blake was left paralyzed after a white police officer shot him in the back seven times during an arrest.

As a response to the shooting in their own state, the Milwaukee Bucks protested against racism and police brutality by refusing to play the scheduled basketball game against Orlando Magic. The players stayed in their locker room until the game was officially postponed.

Relating to the same issue, the Brooklyn Nets hired a new white head coach last week, former point guard Steve Nash. Regardless of Nash’s qualifications for the job, it brought the focus back to the fact that in the N.B.A. out of 30 head coaches in total only five are black. This has lead to discussions about the league’s point of view regarding racism and diversity.

The situation shows that systematic racism and Black Lives Matter Activism leaves no part of society untouched, especially not a sports league in which 80% of the players are black. “The N.B.A. and its teams are committed to advancing diversity, including the representation of Black executives and employees,” Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman said. Bass added that the officials on the board are working on reducing the racist bias in the decision-making process by increasing accountability and strengthening anti-racist processes.

While the issues are not going unnoticed in the N.B.A., many people demand that more should be done to increase diversity in the league. Commissioner Adam Silver claimed that the N.B.A. needs to do a better job at hiring African-Americans “at every level in the league” and that there is “no doubt that more can be done internally.”

The players themselves have taken different measures to combat racism. Several teams in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. followed the example of the Milwaukee Bucks and refused to play games. Players like Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards opted out of playing this season to focus on resolving racial issues in the community. Individual actions like these seem to have renewed the belief around the whole N.B.A. that protesting can be effective.

And there are visible signs of progress. During this summer, three N.B.A. teams hired Black executives, raising the number of nonwhite General Managers in the league to ten. Reacting to the strikes of the basketball teams, N.B.A. team owners agreed to use basketball arenas as voting locations in November. The league also pledged to form a league-wide social-justice coalition.

The N.B.A. play-offs may have resumed but for the players it is clear that activism is becoming an inherent part of athleticism. Ted Leonsis, chief executive of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns several professional sports teams says, “Our players see injustices, and they are calling it out. They understand the tremendous influence they have to inspire an evolution in hearts and minds, and create change.”