Mother maintenance

Worrying for the wellness of the world

People do their best to keep their grades, hygiene and morale maintained during their college years. However, some may forget that the planet this campus sits on top of needs maintenance as well. 

“I would say that Ferris is earth-friendly. There’s lots of locations to do recycling and almost all classes are within walking distance so students don’t have to use cars very often,” Ferris criminal justice sophomore Jenna Roland said. 

Thanks to the relatively small size of campus, many students who live on campus don’t have the need to drive their cars to class. 

Even though there are many places to recycle on campus, do students feel inclined to do it? 

“I think especially in regard to recycling there’s enough provided receptacles that it’s easy to recycle and avoid littering,” Ferris music industry management sophomore Molly Long said. 

Though the abundance of receptacles is enough inspiration for some students, others believe the university isn’t reinforcing the activity in more verbal ways. 

“I haven’t seen any signs stressing the importance of recycling or any signs saying that there will be meetings addressing the topic,” Ferris career exploration sophomore David Reed said. 

A group on campus also noticed this problem and they addressed it by creating an RSO dedicated to maintaining the wellness of the world. 

“We have been a driving force in expanding campus recycling initiatives, we participate in numerous community and campus improvement efforts, we host speakers on various topics in the field of sustainability and we advocate for making sustainable and environmentally-conscious choices in everyday life,” Ferris Bulldog Sustainability alliance president Adam Jandura said. “Instead of telling people to care about something, we show them why they should care. When a large number of people care about an issue, we are able to have a larger voice that we can use to cause change.” 

According to the FSU Energy Trends Poster for 2016, even though the enrollment has increased since 2007 by 336 students, the electricity usage has decreased by 30 MMMBTU. The natural gas usage decreased by 69 MMMBTU. This information is found in the graph titled Ten Year Trend- Enrollment and Electric/Natural Gas energy usage. 

“Things like evaluating and selecting more sustainable products when shopping and choosing not to support companies with poor environmental records become easier and more natural,” Jandura said. 

Students who are looking to do more when it comes to taking care of the environment and saving resources can check out the Bulldog Sustainability Alliance on Twitter @BSAFSU. The group meets every Tuesday at 11 a.m. in FLITE 214. 

“We are always looking for sustainably-minded people with new ideas and perspectives on how we can all better our university, our community and our planet,” Jandura said. “We provide many opportunities to earn volunteer hours and spread information and awareness about important environmental issues.”