The Environmentally-Friendly College Campus

Well, apparently, sustainability on college campuses is on the rise, according to an article I read this week called "College Campuses are Going Green" (you can see the link here - http://www.seattlepi.com/local/282232_greencampus23.html).

Now, that said, I have been pretty impressed with Ole Miss' "green" effort since I arrived here in August. One of the first things I did as a part of my job with Greek Life was to plan a Fall Leadership Summit, and one of the speakers on the docket was a man by the name of Jim Morrison with Greeks Going Green. He spoke to our entire group about green efforts, and I was impressed. Now, as I walk out of the Union every day this week, I see a huge banner reading "Red, Blue, and Green Week." It seems as though, at least to my eyes, we care about the environment on this campus.

But could we do better?

Well, of course. We can always do better in everything we do as a university. Nothing's perfect. So that said, if I had to make three environmentally-friendly changes to our university, this is what I would do:

1. Ban smoking on campus. Smoking pollutes the environment, plus smoke is just gross and it gets on my clothes and stuck in my nose and makes me feel like I am at a bar.
2. Install more recycle bins on campus. I think our recycling efforts could be really upped.
3. Keep campus beautiful by not littering. Maybe even make a litter fine for those who are caught. Ole Miss prides itself on being one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation, and we need to keep it that way.

These are just a few ideas of many to help our "green" efforts. While we are not leading the pack by any means, we are definitely running with the bunch and keeping up a good pace. All it takes is a few small changes to set Ole Miss apart as a frontrunner for being an environmentally-friendly campus.