Although a major source of campus debate last year, the University’s Green Fund, created to set aside resources for the health of the environment, is now in full swing despite qualms over a hike in the Student Activities Fee. As it begins its first year, the optional $15 fee will generate funds for a wide variety of potential projects from composting to solar panels.
Levine and others stressed that students have the option to opt out of the fee. For freshman, this option has not yet expired, and students can decline to participate through their student portfolio, though time is up for upper classmen.
“We want to be as transparent as possible,” said former Environmental Organizer’s Network (EON) Coordinator and former sustainability coordinator for the WSA Josh Levine ’12. “We’re not trying to trick people into giving money, but we do want it to be a participatory fund.”
All of the money collected from the fee goes into a pool that is managed and distributed by the Green Fund Committee, which will be formed in the coming weeks. The committee will be composed of students, along with one staff or faculty advisor. Levine explained that the advisor would bridge the gap between various students and provide guidance.
“If our advisor is someone from Physical Plant, the committee will be able to ask them questions such as: ‘Is this possible, how hard will this be, etc,’” Levine said. “They will not get a vote on where the money goes.”
Julia Jonas-Day ’12 and Julia Michaels ’12 suggested the idea for the fund to the (EON) following a trip during their freshman year to Powershift, a multi-day conference in Washington D.C. in February 2009 dedicated to promoting awareness and activism about the environment.
Beginning in the fall of 2009, a group of EON students set the initiative for a university Green Fund into motion. After writing a proposal, getting the idea approved by the WSA, and getting the student body on board, two-thirds of the student body voted in favor of the green fund.
“It was the type of thing that we knew wasn’t going to be easy, so we revved ourselves up and did what we needed to get done,” Levine said. “There weren’t large roadblocks set up in front of us by Wesleyan so really all it took was a few students who took initiative.”
According to Levine, the administration originally had qualms about where the money would be directed said Levine.
“We had to win Roth over, but he wasn’t hard,” Levine said. “I don’t think he was actually against it. I think once we got to the level of the Board of Trustees it was sort of like, ‘Are we going to give you all of this money and raise students’ tuition and what are you going to do [with it]?’”
Although official statistics have yet to be determined, Levine estimates that approximately 10 percent of students will opt out from the fee based on rates from institutions that have implemented similar programs such as Oberlin College. Although Levine explained that these were rough estimates, he hopes that the Fund will bring in approximately $70,000 this year. When the number become available, the number of students who chose to opt out will be published.
Students are encouraged to submit ideas for how the fund will be spent. So far there are several proposals such as energy meters in apartments and dorms, to more renewable energy sources on campus, to composting in the Usdan Marketplace and Summerfields. All decisions will be made by the committee.
“I think that realistically we’re not going to get a ton of submissions,” Levine said. “We’re not going to let the money just sit there if we don’t get proposals. We’re not going to sit on our butts waiting for someone to come up with an idea.”
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