Spring Break
Feeling the green fee
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Forum
It was supposed to mean that OSU would be converted to 100 percent renewable energy.
The green fee of $8.50 per student per term was passed by a whopping 70 percent of the vote.
There were 2,385 yea votes. Approximately 3,407 students voted.
A grand total of 19,753 students are enrolled at OSU. Barely more than 17 percent of students voted on the green fee proposal.
And here we are.
We're paying $8.50 per student per term for a fee that isn't performing as it should be.
According to Andrea Norris, coordinator of the Student Sustainability Initiative, the price quote the fee was based on was lower than the proposed price.
OSU is running on 72 percent renewable energy.
Seventy-two percent?
That's not 100 percent. That's like saying "if you pass this student fee, you can keep your student section seats" and then instead of keeping all 2,000 you only get 1,440 and you have to pay the fee too.
The two year contract OSU has for renewable energy is with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The BEF intends to install other types of renewable energy producing devices such as solar panels to supplement incoming energy.
We're here. We're trying to go green, but we're looking at a situation of getting what you ask for - rather, not getting what you ask for.
Only 11.9 percent of the entire fee paying student body voted for the green fee and to turn OSU to a sustainable energy fueled campus. That's not half. That's not even a quarter of all of the students.
Paying the green fee is like paying for a pizza and only getting 6 slices. We can understand that the price of the pizza increased, but maybe we wouldn't have purchased that pizza if we knew the price changed.
Maybe we wouldn't be interested in paying a student fee for athletics if we knew we were only going to keep 1,440 seats of the 2,000.
All parts are equally important, but buying green energy by default and pitching research papers in the trash does not make a person green-friendly.
It's a call to action. It's going to take more than using some renewable energy on campus. It takes a change in lifestyle, a change in behavior and a personal change in consumption of energy that will really make a difference for our environment.
Turn out a light, recycle, ride your bike and vote if you want to make a difference. For more information about the SSI, visit their website at www.oregonstate.edu/sustainability/.
Editorials serve as a means for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale or diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board's majority.
The green fee of $8.50 per student per term was passed by a whopping 70 percent of the vote.
There were 2,385 yea votes. Approximately 3,407 students voted.
A grand total of 19,753 students are enrolled at OSU. Barely more than 17 percent of students voted on the green fee proposal.
And here we are.
We're paying $8.50 per student per term for a fee that isn't performing as it should be.
According to Andrea Norris, coordinator of the Student Sustainability Initiative, the price quote the fee was based on was lower than the proposed price.
OSU is running on 72 percent renewable energy.
Seventy-two percent?
That's not 100 percent. That's like saying "if you pass this student fee, you can keep your student section seats" and then instead of keeping all 2,000 you only get 1,440 and you have to pay the fee too.
The two year contract OSU has for renewable energy is with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The BEF intends to install other types of renewable energy producing devices such as solar panels to supplement incoming energy.
We're here. We're trying to go green, but we're looking at a situation of getting what you ask for - rather, not getting what you ask for.
Only 11.9 percent of the entire fee paying student body voted for the green fee and to turn OSU to a sustainable energy fueled campus. That's not half. That's not even a quarter of all of the students.
Paying the green fee is like paying for a pizza and only getting 6 slices. We can understand that the price of the pizza increased, but maybe we wouldn't have purchased that pizza if we knew the price changed.
Maybe we wouldn't be interested in paying a student fee for athletics if we knew we were only going to keep 1,440 seats of the 2,000.
All parts are equally important, but buying green energy by default and pitching research papers in the trash does not make a person green-friendly.
It's a call to action. It's going to take more than using some renewable energy on campus. It takes a change in lifestyle, a change in behavior and a personal change in consumption of energy that will really make a difference for our environment.
Turn out a light, recycle, ride your bike and vote if you want to make a difference. For more information about the SSI, visit their website at www.oregonstate.edu/sustainability/.
Editorials serve as a means for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale or diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board's majority.
Note: writers will not reply to comments.
Comments by registered users are approved by default.