The Energy and Sustainability Committee, a new ad hoc Student Government committee, hosted their first meeting in the Student Government office on Tuesday night.
Student Body President Desmond Miller started the meeting by giving his overview of the first phase of the Energy and Sustainability Committee. According to Miller, this first phase will mostly include research. Miller would like to see green initiatives implemented by the actions of the committee by the Winter 2014 semester.
According to Student Senator Kody Vitale, the committee would like to focus on campus policies regarding energy and sustainability as well as promoting community service involvement among the student body.
Miller’s hope is that the committee will pick a chairperson by the second or third meeting. He said that the chairperson does not have to be a senator. Rather, it could be any person in the committee with a strong passion for the issues.
Junior and activist Lois Vasquez is certainly passionate about energy and sustainability at EMU.
“My personal belief is that we have a lot of the puzzle pieces for sustainability on campus already,” Vasquez said. “I want to bring those pieces together.”
Vitale agreed with Vasquez’s sentiment.
“I am an advocate for sustainability practices both on a large and small scale,” Vitale said.
Tai Hornsby, a senior and environmental science major, would like to see some policies implemented as a result of his participation in the committee.
“I would like to work on alternative and preventative measures that pertain to environmental sciences and sustainability,” Hornsby said.
Junior and political science major Aimee Frey says she has joined the committee because she wants to make the student body aware of their wasteful behaviors and how wastefulness effects the world.
“I want to come up with ways to fix this problem.” Frey said.
The Energy and Sustainability Committee will meet again on at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 in the Student Government offices in the Student Center. Anyone interested in energy and sustainability issues is welcome to attend.
