Residence Life Goes "Green"

The department of Residence Life and Services also worked diligently to carry out the “Sustainability” theme beginning in Fall 2008.  By using floor decorations made from recycled materials, “green” cleaning products, electronic forms, and energy star appliances, we feel we’ve made great strides in incorporating the “green” theme while still maintaining high levels of comfort and convenience in residence hall living. 

In addition to sustainable resources, we implemented different programs and contests to support “Green Living.”  Residence halls participated in “Recyclemania,” an annual contest in which Universities compete nationwide to see who can recycle and minimize the most waste.  We began incorporating battery recycling at front desks, plastic bag recycling in the lobbies, and placing additional recycling containers in buildings with money from the District O Grant.  We partner with charitable organizations annually to collect items during move-out which reduces waste in our landfills.  Finally, we started an “Energy Competition” between residence halls to see who could save the most energy.  The contest winners received and elliptical and treadmill.  Since implementing these programs, there has been a marked increase in student recycling. 

Beginning this year, Residence Life and Services will save 750,000 sheets of paper annually by printing double-sided pages in residence hall computer labs.  We received a $22,000 grant from City Utilities to install occupancy sensors in common areas, which will save us $7,000 annually in electricity, and we also saved $3,000 monthly and 5.57 kwh per resident during our Energy Competition.

The Residence Hall Association (RHA), Hall Councils, and Resident Assistants all took part in planning and implementing fun and educational programs. Thus far we have offered 75 programs with an average attendance of 95 students. Some of these programs include: "No Power Hour," where students turned off their lights in their room and enjoyed board games in the basement; "Race to Recycle," which encouraged students to recycle; "Trash to Treasure," that allowed students to swap one student’s trash for another student’s treasure; "Woods Without Lights Wednesday’s," students committed to making small changes in their daily habits; "Project Greenway," which allowed students to be creative and strut their stuff down the runway and demonstrate how sustainable of an outfit they can make; Adopt-A-Street; and a Hybrid Car Show, in which students coordinated local car dealerships to bring in their hybrids for students to view and one day was devoted to showing Missouri State’s maintenance staff’s green vehicles. RHA has also looked into a Green Bike Program and is awaiting funding. 

We provided training and books on sustainability that have proven successful for students and staff. Student leaders incorporated ideas from these training sessions on their floors by making publicity for programs. Wells House Resident Assistants had the challenge to use only recycled or post-consumer goods for their publicity and decorations. Students used the back sides of old publicity and bed sheets that could be washed and reused. In addition to using more e-mail reminders and facebook events, RHA started using a digital photo frame to publicize their programs. Throughout the department, we have been more conscious of our resources and laminated posters that would be used year to year.

 

Overall, this year’s Public Affairs theme of sustainability was fun and exciting to incorporate into the residence halls. We changed the way in which we do programming and publicity and set new standards for our facilities. We are more Earth friendly and are always trying to think of a greener way to do things.

Submitted by Jennifer Cox.