Sunday, February 21, 2010

A Fee Well Worth It

Student elections are just around the corner. On March 30, 2010 students will be electing new officials for the following school year. This campus wide election will affect current and future ISU students. Dorian Moore, ISU's Secretary of Sustainability, is rightfully pushing for the adoption of a sustainability fee that could be put into action as soon as fall semester this year. This fee would be used to benefit the student body as well as the rest of the school by promoting a greener movement on campus. Reggie Ride would be funded. Campus wide efficiency projects could be funded with the money. Even projects such as replacing impermeable sidewalks with new permeable concrete to prevent flooding and icing could be funded. This fee is very versatile and relatively cheap in comparison to other tuition charges.

After giving a survey last semester, it was determined that students were most willing to pay a fee of around $5 for this fee. The proposed fee will be $.34 per credit hour. This means if a student is taking fifteen credit hours in a semester, they will pay $5.10 that semester. This would be a minor percentage of a student's semester dues, and like we mentioned before, it would promote a greener, cleaner, more efficient campus.

On March 18, Dorian will be hosting a forum at the Bone Student Center to promote this fee. The room is in arrangement now, and specifics will be coming shortly. More information and support on the sustainability fee can be found on Facebook by searching for "Support Sustainability Efforts at ISU!".


Volunteers for the renewable energy demo cart are as follows:

Solar - Erica Buster
Wind - Dan Buckley
Biofuels - Rob Martin
Cart - Seth Rients
Electronics - Seth Rients
Concentrated Solar Power - Mike Delfs

Monday, February 15, 2010

Catching Up

RETECH 2010 was a trip well worth it in many ways. Despite almost being caught in one of the east coast's worst snow storms to date, we persevered and were able to meet with many influential speakers and guests. The days were long, the pay was low, and everyone performed well with little sleep. Our volunteer duties involved setting up the conference, greeting attendees, manning an information booth, and sitting in lectures to provide speakers with any assistance they may need. Two RES members even represented North American Clean Energy, a magazine based out of Canada. This experience opened up great networking opportunities for students in both the technology sequence and in the public policy sequence. Plan on more conference trips in the future. For more detailed information on the conference please email res.ilstu@gmail.com.

Our meeting last week was humble but productive. We met with the student adviser to the residence halls here at ISU. We are working together to develop a teaching aid that would promote more awareness of renewable energy technologies to students all over the campus. We would like it to be some sort of hybrid device showing how both wind and solar power work. Two designs we are trying to develop from are the Green Energy Machine and the Solar Stik. This teaching aid would be used during student events such as our campus wide Earth Day celebration. It could also be taken to local high schools and community meetings to show the public the benefits of renewable energy technologies. This is a joint venture between the Renewable Energy Society and the student residence halls.

Another topic touched on at the meeting last week was 'movies.' Which movie(s) should we show this semester? Where should we show them? To whom should we show them to? A couple popular titles were Crude and The Fuel Film. Crude will hopefully be shown in the next couple weeks. We will try to arrange a showing at the Normal Theater or University Cinemas. As for The Fuel Film, we would like to show it on Earth Day, possibly in Edwards Hall here at ISU. Edwards Hall is home to an ample-sized auditorium that would be great for a few hundred students to utilize, and most likely it would not cost the students anything to attend here.

Lastly, we are working with the other green RSO's to host a dinner on April 21st here at ISU. This would be an Earth Day pep rally, essentially. It will help motivate everyone for the following day's activities. More on this dinner is to be announced within the next couple of weeks. As of now, it is still in the planning stage.

One more quick note. A group of RES members will be meeting with Randy Winter in the next two weeks to determine what needs to go into the development of the permanent RES website. More information on this will also be better available in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks, and until next time, enjoy your week and stay clean.