In the past few years, college authorities have become conscious about their carbon footprint, and they have been making efforts to adopt eco-friendly features in their campuses as well. The Texas State University officials are very particular about their carbon footprint and they have devised a system of collecting student service fee that helps them in converting their campus green.
The environmental service fee charged by the university
The university has a new fee system under which they charge all the students $1 extra as part of their semester fee. This fee is transferred to the environmental service fee fund of the university which monitors all the environmentally conscious projects in the campus. Most of these projects aim towards making the university campus more eco-friendly in nature, and they are executed with the help of the volunteer student groups.
According to the Vice President of the Finance and Support Services in the university, Nancy Nusbaum, the university collects close to $73,000 with the help of the environmental service fee every year, and all these funds are distributed among the university’s projects immediately. At present, the university is funding approximately 13 projects with the current year’s fee. But they require $45,000 more to finish these projects.
Promoting eco friendly promotional items on campus
According to one of the members of the Finance and Support Department of the university, Bill Nance, the university encourages all the students to come up with eco-friendly plans for the campus. Nance stated that the university authorities receive several proposals in a year. All these proposals are examined by the officials, and the ones that seem realistic are shortlisted. The projects that are chosen are discussed in detail, and the authorities make a proper plan for them. Once the next semester begins, the work on these projects also commences.
Eco-friendly projects on campus at present
At present, there are close to 13 eco-friendly projects that are being completed on campus. One of the most exciting projects that the university is working on is the outdoor classroom or the living library project. In this project, the university authorities are going to construct an agricultural building within the campus which will have open-air classrooms and an eco-friendly library as well. This project is going to cost the university approximately $20,000. The interior designers’ team stated that they are already designing eco friendly promotional items for the building, and that the building will be in a functional state by the month of January, 2014.
Source:Â http://star.txstate.edu/node/6947
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