Join our editorial board by applying here or become a columnist at the Spectator by clicking here.
RecycleMania Sheds Light on Barnard EcoReps
By Zahra Khimji
PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 2008
The kickoff of RecycleMania, a nationwide recycling competition found on 88 college campuses across the country, has highlighted Barnard’s recent attempts to “Go Green” and to follow Columbia’s lead with its recent addition of EcoReps to its college.
Barnard EcoReps joined the EcoReps at Columbia in raising environmental awareness roughly a year ago. As a relatively new program, members have described their projects and developments as something of a trial run.
“We want to be sure that this is the right way we are going about the program,” said EcoRep Megan McNally, BC ’09.
McNally and her group of EcoReps are involved in working with the Office of Residential Life and Housing and facilities around the school to get green options on campus.
“I have the responsibility to raise environmental awareness,” McNally said.
McNally said that the main concern of EcoReps was to develop educational activities that would increase environmental awareness while decreasing energy consumption.
While the Barnard and Columbia EcoReps programs are similar, they remain separate from one another—EcoReps at Columbia, for instance, are assigned to monitor particular halls on campus to maintain an area that is safe and environmentally sound.
But Columbia EcoRep Patricia Rojas, CC ’11, emphasized the common goals between both groups.
“There aren’t very many differences. We basically have a liaison from Barnard that updates us and that intertwines certain projects. It’s a tight-knit community,” Rojas said.
“We’re all equal in power, but Barnard’s EcoReps are more democratic than Columbia’s because we’re a smaller group,” McNally said.
The RecycleMania competition includes a program that encourages campus communities to “Go Green” by offering monetary compensation for all material recycled.
“The RecycleBank has had a great impact. The bins are overflowing and I think that the response is because money can definitely talk,” Rojas said.
Senior Class Vice President Laurie Rabinowitz, BC ’08, has been monitoring all initiatives on the Barnard campus. Barnard has also signed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “30 in 10” challenge, which calls for New York City colleges to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 30 percent within the next 10 years.
Article Tools:
Post new comment