Price Center’s slew of students accumulating waste by the ton during an all-day lunch hour has never made it the bastion of sustainability.
Until now.
The A.S. Council approved plans last week to draft a charter for the long-talked-about Sustainability Resource Center, four months after the Winter Quarter A.S. activity fee referendum passed, allotting $2.34 per student per quarter to the proposed facility.
Designed as a work area for environmental organizations on campus, the center will fill the space previously occupied by the EDNA information booth, as well as the marketing offices located behind it.
Construction of the center is set to begin in July.
Sustainability coordinator Maggie Souder, who will have an office in the new center, said she remains hopeful that the facility will become a model for other campus sustainability programs. It will include a small library, meeting room, department offices and showcase of a variety of UCSD research projects.
The facility is planned for completion in fall 2009, and will be accessible from inside the Price Center Theater lobby. Its floor plan is modeled after other UCSD resource centers such as the Women’s Center and the LGBT Resource Center.
Sustainability Resource Collective President Michelle Kizner said that attaining a central campus location where environmental organizations could congregate was the project’s fundamental motive.
‘Most students who are involved in sustainability ‘hellip; have some sort of story where it was very difficult for them to figure out how to get involved,’ Kizner said. ‘There are all of these [environmental] groups that I just didn’t know about. There’s just so much going on on campus that if you’re interested, it’s hard to be visible.’
Green Campus ‘mdash; a student-led outreach program promoting energy and water efficiency on campus ‘mdash; will utilize the space to maintain a sense of connection among its members and the rest of the student body.
‘One of our problems [is that] we can’t find a [consistent] meeting room, and I think that’s a little bit difficult in terms of getting a good turn-out,’ Green Campus intern Meredith Wong said. ‘Just to have a central location will be really great for our club ‘hellip; more student involvement and awareness.’
Members of the Sustainability Resource Collective, a student-run organization, secured the space for the center last year.
‘Last Spring Quarter we went and made a presentation and told [the University Centers Advisory Board] about the plan and how we were congregating ‘mdash; it was a student and faculty effort ‘mdash; and the board voted, and they allocated us the space,’ SRC member June Reyes said.
A.S. President Utsav Gupta said the council will leave the center’s daily operations up to the SRC staff, relegating its role to the provision of student-based oversight.
A portion of the new activity fees will fund the $120-a-week starting salaries for five student directors of the center who have yet to be appointed.
According to Reyes, the student directors will be chosen by a committee of A.S. councilmembers and student representatives from the Social and Environmental Sustainability Committee, a student-run organization serving as an advisory committee to the A.S. Council on sustainability issues.
Souder ‘mdash; who will work alongside the facility’s only other faculty member, sustainability analyst Kristin Hansen ‘mdash; said dialogue between students and administrators will be key to the operation of the new center.
‘What I would see ideally is that the students would come up with ideas that they have for change, they can share them [and] we can try to get them [approved] administratively,’ Souder said. ‘And then also when we have projects that we’d like help with, we go and say, ‘Here’s this opportunity, and do you guys
have a good fit for us?’ It’s going to be a very two-way correspondence.’
Readers can contact Kelsey Marrujo at [email protected].