The Green Fund will also include an opt-out mechanism that will allow students to forgo paying the fee.

“We think the vast majority of students on campus consider sustainability a top priority, but we also wanted to give students the option of participating,” said Josh Levine ’12, Sustainability Coordinator for the WSA. “If a student doesn’t want to support the fund or simply can’t afford it, they have the option of opting out and not paying the fee. It’s not mandatory.”

The money received from the fees will be reserved for future sustainability projects on campus.

“The Green Fund is a student-funded, student-managed pool of money that will be spent on sustainability initiatives on campus,” Levine said. “That money will add up to about $65,000 or $70,000, and that will be distributed by the students on the Green Fund committee.”

The resolution passed the WSA with a 31-1 vote.

“I was grateful and impressed by the WSA’s near unanimous vote,” Levine said.

Jeff Stein ’10, Academic Affairs Chair of the WSA, cast the dissenting vote against the “opt out” mechanism of the Green Fee proposition, preferring an “opt in” option instead.

“I would say having the ‘opt out’ mechanism specifically is somewhat underhanded in its attempt to have this be an issue adopted by students widely,” Stein said. “You are less likely to get the same amount of funds if you do an ‘opt in’ mechanism, which is to say that you would have students click a button saying they want to pay the charge, as opposed to clicking one to say they don’t.”

According to Stein, the fee, which totals $120 over four years, could create problems among students.

“To some students, that is enough money to go elsewhere,” Stein said. “It could go to beer or it could go to some other charity.”

Despite opposing views on the payment option, representatives from both sides of the discussion agree that the money going towards campus sustainability will be beneficial.

“I feel like I would pay the charge,” Stein said. “The money goes to green initiatives on campus, augmenting Wesleyan’s admirable attempt to ‘go green.’”

Environmental Organizers’ Network (EON) Green Fund Committee Chairs Julia Jonas-Day ’12 and Julia Michaels ’12 first introduced the idea for a Green Fund to Levine.

“We got the idea at a national conference on environmentalism in Washington D.C.,” Jonas-Day said. “A ton of schools around the country had it, and we were just wondering ‘why doesn’t Wesleyan have this?’ We really have no institutionalized source of funding for sustainability.”

According to Jonas-Day, the Green Fund will mitigate the lack of organization geared towards sustainability.

“Insulating senior housing is a big thing; senior houses waste a ton of energy,” Jonas-Day said. “We just haven’t had the funding to insulate them for years.”

The Green Fee proposal will next be voted on by the student body, and if two-thirds of voters approve it, the fee will proceed to the Board of Trustees for approval.

Among the 472 students who participated in the WSA survey, a sweeping majority voted that financial aid should be protected from budget cuts. Academic departments were another area that most students did not want to see affected. The majority of respondents were open to the possibility of budget cuts in Athletics and the Undergraduate Tuition Scholarship Program for Dependent Children of Faculty, Professional Librarians, and Administrative Staff. Participants were split on the remainder of the issues, including budget cuts for the Green Street Arts Center, the WESU radio station, and other co-curriculars, as well as a potential faculty salary freeze and moving professors to a 3:2 teaching load.

In addition to conducting the survey, the WSA’s Budget Priorities Task Force held three open meetings for student body input, interviewed senior members of the Administration about the intricacies of the budget report, and read background information on each of the budget cut proposals. Their research culminated in a four and a half hour meeting of open discussion between WSA members and the drafting of a report of recommendations for proposed budget cuts to present to the administration.

“It is important that students speak out and have their voices heard,” said WSA President Mike Pernick ’10. “I believe the most important perspective is the people who are impacted by the cuts. This will determine the future of Wesleyan as an institution.”

The Board of Trustees will meet on campus this weekend to discuss their course of action between now and May, when the final budget for the 2010-2011 academic year will be approved. According to President Michael Roth, the administration places significant weight on the recommendations of the WSA.

“I reported to the Executive Committee this weekend and at the faculty meeting last week that I was waiting for receipt of [the Task Force’s report of recommendations] because I had heard intimations from students that some of the faculty priorities were not shared by student representatives,” Roth said. “We’ll talk about [the report] with the Board—I take it very seriously.”

In response to a proposal earlier this year by the administration to reduce the overall financial aid budget by $3.7 million, the WSA passed a resolution a month ago indicating that financial aid should be the last item to face budget cuts.

“The University has a responsibility to our students to ensure that any admit has a right to come here, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Ben Firke ’12, Task Force member and Finance and Facilities Committee Chair. “And even if you aren’t on financial aid, your experience here is enriched by people who are.”

The Task Force has sent the report to Roth and will meet with him in the upcoming week to discuss the details of the recommendations.

“The Trustees ultimately have the final say on the budget in the spring,” Firke said. “We can provide them and President Roth’s cabinet with the student view of the budget scenario, and press them hard on it.”

- Sixteen-year-old Jayred Bowerman was struck and then pinned beneath a Dodge Caravan while walking near Ward St. and Main St. last Friday. Firefighters lifted the vehicle and performed emergency care shortly after 5 p.m. before taking Bowerman to the Hartford Hospital where he remains in stable condition. (The Middletown Press)

-Quick, protect your Wii! Nintendo owners beware, drug addicts desperate for a fix will find you. According to Middletown police, Justin Kelly 31, faced court charges on Wednesday for breaking and entering a home in the middle of the night on Aug. 16. Kelly went straight for the jackpot and stole the most valuable of all valuables – the Wii, valued at $280, as well as five games valued at $250 and a GPS system worth $170. In addition, $100 in cash was reported as missing from the victim’s car. After pawning the GPS and Nintendo Wii, Kelly and his accomplice drove to Hartford where they purchased 14 packets of heroin. At Kelly’s court hearing his bond was set at $15,000, with an order to reappear in court on Dec. 12. (The Middletown Press)

- Spit does not, and will never, make a good appetizer, as the owner of Luce Restaurant on Main St. hopefully learned. Senad Bajraktarvic was arrested Tuesday for assault and unlawful restraint. According to police, Bajraktarvic began arguing with a woman after she had accidentally parked in his restaurant’s lot. After yelling at the woman to move her car, Bajraktarvic spat in her face and called her “trash,” police said. He then blocked her path and would not allow her to get back into her vehicle. When she finally managed to return to her car, he began slamming the door into her left side and leg and spat on her car as she drove away. Bajraktarvic admitted that he yelled at the woman and insulted her, but denied all other accusations. (The Middletown Press)

HARTFORD:

- Vice President Joseph Biden will come to Hartford on Dec. 11 for a lunchtime fundraiser for Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd. Biden visited the state in early October, appearing with Dodd at an event in Fairfield, which highlighted the President’s economic stimulus spending plan. Tickets to the December campaign fundraiser at the Connecticut Science Center are $500 per person (and in case you were wondering, no, none of the proceeds are going to charity). (CT News Junkie)

-There is a reason why prescription bottles advise users not to operate heavy machinery let alone mix medicines after taking the pills. Personnel at a charter school sighted Joanne Rich and Brian Kowakcyk driving the wrong way on a one-way street. They were arrested upon awaking in the car, incoherent from a narcotic induced nap on the side of road. The pair face charges for reckless driving and possession of prescription drugs in improper containers, including those for heartburn, arthritis, and bladder control. (Hartford Advocate)

NEW HAVEN:

-On Wednesday, police released the 911 tapes of the emergency call made when Howard Stewart allegedly set fire to his girlfriend, Lee, and tried to do the same to her 12-year-old daughter, who the night before told her mother that Stewart was abusing her. The 12-year-old was able to save her infant sister and emerge unscathed from the burning apartment, despite having accelerant poured over her head. Stewart fled the scene but was apprehended by police several blocks away. Stewart had wooden matches in his pocket, possibly the same ones he used earlier. Lee remains at the Bridgeport Hospital in critical condition, with third degree burns covering over 40 percent of her body. Stewart has yet to enter a plea, but says he is sorry and that “things just went too far.” (The New Haven Register)

The Energy Star label is an international standard used on a wide range of electronics, including home appliances, televisions, and lighting. The Energy Star specification varies from product to product, but to qualify for the label, the product must be 20 to 30 percent more energy efficient than required by federal standards.

“It was a purchasing decision primarily affecting the facilities department within my jurisdiction,” wrote Joyce Topshe, Associate Vice President for Facilities and current member of the Green Buildings Committee in an e-mail to The Argus. “I made an executive decision to make it a policy.”

“The incredible thing about working with the administration is that they can snap their fingers and make things happen. A few phone calls and it was taken care of,” said Josh Levine ’12, member of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) and the Green Buildings Committee.

The issue first surfaced when Topshe noticed that many of the refrigerators being purchased by the University were not meeting Energy Star standards.

"I would guess that Wesleyan probably has close to 1,000 refrigerators on campus in houses, apartments, and offices,” Topshe wrote. “We replace several refrigerators nearly every month.”

Household refrigerators are the most commonly replaced appliance at the University and the Green Building Committee looked into ways to reducing energy consumption with newer purchases. While Energy Star products, including refrigerators, cost more than their non-qualified counterparts, their energy savings reduce their lifetime costs. Old, inefficient appliances will be replaced as they fail.

“By 2020, expect all appliances on campus to be Energy Star,” Levine said.

According to Akbar, he was walking by the President's home when he noticed two suspicious men—one of them he described as white and holding what turned out to be the spray can, and the other was tall and dark-skinned—who did not look like students, walking up to the President’s house.

“They rushed over to the President’s residence,” he said. “The taller guy stayed outside while the other one crept up to his front door. They were planning to wreck the door or spray graffiti on it or something,” Akbar said.

At this time, Akbar said he took out his phone to call his friends while continuing to walk. He heard the taller man call off the operation and thought he had inadvertently saved the President’s door. The assailant, he said, then came up from behind and struck him on the head with the spray can. By the time Akbar got up from the ground, the men had jumped into a run-down white sedan, which was occupied by several other people. Akbar said the men were laughing as the car sped away.

Akbar’s phone was wrecked from the fall so he walked to 200 Church where a friend called Public Safety (PSafe). Akbar was then taken to Middlesex Hospital where he received five staples for his head wound.

Akbar said he was unhappy with the way he was treated by PSafe that night. Akbar alleges that when his friend called PSafe, the officer who picked up immediately began asking for descriptions of the assailants without first inquiring about his medical condition.

“Amongst the first questions that the officers asked was ‘what was the race of the people who struck you?’” Akbar said. “I chose to tell the officers I do not identify criminals by the color of their skin or by their race simply because I didn’t feel like it was the right question at the right time. It’s understandable that you require this information to identify criminals, but for an officer to just come up and ask that [immediately], it just struck me as a hidden form of stereotyping.”

According to Director of Public Safety David Meyer, the question of race was not immediately put forth and an ambulance was dispatched in a timely fashion.

“Race was not the first question,” Meyer wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “Less than 45 seconds into the call we realized the victim needed medical attention and immediately called for an ambulance.”

According to Akbar, his refusal to immediately answer the PSafe officer’s questions resulted in PSafe’s suspicion that he was intentionally withholding information. After being released from the hospital, PSafe visited Akbar’s dorm room to further question him and the friend who had called PSafe on his behalf.

“What was appalling was that he maintained a very accusatory line by saying that he didn’t believe I was giving him all the information,” he said. “He believed that I either had issues with somebody on campus or somebody off campus. I didn’t give him a lot of details just then and there [after the ambulance arrived] simply because I was suffering from the shock of a blow to my head and also because you can’t perfectly answer all questions with three [EMTs] all over your head, examining you,” he said.

Akbar has since sent an email to Roth, Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Whaley, and other administrators detailing the problems he had with PSafe’s handling of the situation. PSafe is currently conducting an internal investigation of Akbar’s allegations, and Meyer said he has no further comment until it concludes later this week. The University’s findings will appear in Friday’s Argus.

Although students make up less than 18 percent of the City’s population of 48,000, Deputy Director of Planning, Conservation, and Development for Middletown Michiel Wackers reported that the University is Middletown’s fifth largest employer.

“Wesleyan is an internationally known University, so they’re able to attract employees from around the world,” Wackers said. “However, there are still a lot of support systems and staff positions where they employ people from Middletown.”

According to Wackers, the variety of visitors that the University attracts has contributed to the continuing “Renaissance of Middletown,” which includes an increase of restaurants and other retail storefronts in Middletown, particularly on Main Street.

“Visitors are attracted to what Wesleyan has to offer, especially in terms of arts and lectures,” he said. “For Wesleyan, a lot of investment is focused on the campus and on creating an institution that is pleasant to visit. Broad Street Books and the Green Street Arts Center are examples of off-campus investment that have benefited Middletown.”

Wackers acknowledged that the current economic climate has lowered the rate of hiring across the board. He said that the City has run a variety of programs to stimulate job creation and investment, such as job fairs.

“We want an institution that can remain for the long-term, and even if that means that [the University] is not employing the number people now that we would hope for, we know they have plans to invest for the long-term and contribute to the economic vitality of the community,” he said.

A representative from Transportation Services, when contacted by The Argus on Monday morning, said that he had not heard about any problems with The Ride this weekend. Three hours later, Public Safety sent out an all-campus e-mail explaining that phone service changes had caused the technical issues.

“We are working with WesTel and believe these issues will be resolved soon,” the e-mail said.

On Saturday, Kara Ingraham ’11 began forming a student committee that will make a presentation to the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) on Sunday calling for reforms of The Ride’s policy and new measures to ensure student safety.

Ingraham formed a Facebook event called “The Ride: Something Needs to Change,” which currently has over 250 members. The event page asks students to share their experiences and complaints about The Ride.

Kumail Akbar ’12, who was assaulted near President Michael Roth’s house on Friday night, posted on the event page that The Ride’s inefficiency was a contributing factor in his assault. Akbar also expressed his dissatisfaction with The Ride in an interview with The Argus.

“I called The Ride before I left,” he said. “They told me they would be there in five to seven minutes, but from past experience five to seven minutes does not mean five to seven minutes. It takes them quite a while to get there, especially on weekend nights; they are extremely unpredictable.”

“I understand that there’s a lot of discontent and we’re very committed to addressing students’ problems,” said Ben Firke ’12, Chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee of the WSA. “What we’re doing right now is trying to determine what are the problems that Transporation and Public Safety need to fix and what are the problems that the WSA can address.”

In an interview with The Argus, Ingraham said that The Ride’s unreliability makes students more likely to take the risk of walking across campus at night.

“Students are starting to make the decision to just walk, which is a decision they wouldn’t make with a system that is in place and working efficiently,” Ingraham said. “You shouldn’t be walking by yourself, especially if you’re a female at 11 o’clock at night.”

Igraham also noted that she believes the locations of some Ride stops pose a danger to students.

“I live on Pine—they’re asking us to go to a stop that’s seven houses down and that’s unprotected, open to the side street, and in front of a dark building,” Ingraham said. “It’s easier for them to come down seven houses than it is for me to stand out in the cold and dark.”

Ingraham hopes that bringing these issues to the WSA will start a conversation about The Ride on campus.

“It’s just a general frustration students have with The Ride,” she said. “It’s fine if they’re not a door-to-door service, but they need to be efficient in what they’re doing.”

Without cuts in funding, GSAC would receive $140,000 next year in University subsidies, according to Sonia Mañjon, Vice President for Diversity and Strategic Partnerships. The WSA has been reviewing these proposals in order to offer recommendations to the administration. The administration, however, is under no formal obligation to follow the recommendations.

The WSA was initially somewhat split on the issue. In the week leading up to the final vote, the WSA Budget Priorities Committee, which researched budget-cutting options for the WSA, changed its recommendation from “acceptable with conditions” to “not acceptable,” based on the previous week’s debate. The final vote for “not acceptable” passed with 26 in favor, three opposed, and three abstaining.

“The WSA’s objective is clear—we wish to send a message to the administration that any budget cut to the Arts Center is not acceptable,” said WSA Student Affairs Committee member Micah Feiring ’11.

Feiring described the amount of University subsidies going toward GSAC’s budget as being a drop in the bucket when compared to the total University budget deficit. Feiring contends that the financial savings in cutting even a portion of the center’s budget would not be worth the negative message that would be sent to the community.

“In no economy can Wesleyan afford to be seen as an ivory tower,” Feiring said. “The Arts Center allows us to share our knowledge and give back to our community.”

Since its opening in 2005, GSAC has served over 15,000 people. University funding has enabled the center to subsidize the enrollment of many children who would otherwise be unable to attend. GSAC has been working to increase its financial efficiency and self-sustainability so as to reduce its dependence on University subsidies since the beginning of the economic crisis.

Members who voted in opposition to GSAC cuts being not acceptable included David Goldman ’12, who encouraged a decrease in GSAC funding to be considered “acceptable with conditions.”

“The core values that the WSA should preserve are financial aid and academics,” he said.

Goldman described GSAC funding as discretionary spending that is less essential to student interests.

Feiring, on the other hand, argued that community service can be as educational as classroom academics. At Sunday’s meeting, Sylvie Stein ’12 Chair of the Community Outreach Committee, pointed out that GSAC facilities, such as its recording studio, are used by University students and musical groups in addition to other Middletown community members.

The center hosts a variety of events and programs for adults and children, including a K-12 after-school program, which offers homework help and a variety of art activities and classes. The center includes a dance studio, recording studio, music rooms for private lessons, computer labs, visual arts rooms, performing spaces, and a meeting space that is often rented out to other groups, including the North End Action Team, a community outreach group.

“When people are asked about what Wesleyan does for the community, a lot of people bring up Green Street Arts Center,” said WSA Student Budget Committee member Aubrey Hamilton ’12.

To be enacted, the Green Fund must now be approved by the student body. The vote will occur during the WSA midterm elections sometime between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14 and must be approved by two-thirds of voters to pass.

The proposal includes an opt-out policy to ensure that students who do not support the policy do not have to pay a fee. Nonetheless, at other schools that have similar Green Fund opt-out policies, most students pay the fee.

“I’d anticipate [that the fund will generate] about $65,000 [per year],” said EON Co-Coordinator Josh Levine ’12. “That’s factoring in about a 15 percent opt-out—10 percent is normal at other schools.”

If approved, the Green Fund will go into effect for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Following the launch of Zipcars on campus, the WSA is continuing to expand transportation options for students who do not have access to a car.

“We are looking to further develop transportation options for Wesleyan students,” said Ben Firke ’12, Chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee of the WSA. “This program will target primarily students without driver’s licenses or who do not necessarily want to drive. It is still preliminary at this point, but we are looking at first year students, sophomores and international students as the major groups who would benefit most from the program.”

The local shuttle would be available to all University students and would be free of charge. Possible destinations include the A&P, Home Depot, the Verizon store, and restaurants along Washington St. The exact route, size of shuttle, and schedules have not yet been determined.