A Sustainable Rider?
Students waste tons of energy

By Mike Caputo

In a typical residence hall room, all power outlets are filled to capacity with surge protectors and other energy-guzzling objects. Refrigerators, televisions, computers, DVD players, hair dryers, battery chargers, lamps — sometimes two of each — are the rule.

Sara Keegan, a senior, spells out a representative attitude of the student body at Rider when it comes to energy consumption.

“I’m paying for it, so I’m going to use it,” Keegan said.

But according to Al Gore’s eye-opening film An Inconvenient Truth, to be screened at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 16-18, in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater – and numerous scientists around the world – Keegan and the rest of her generation will pay, for the rest of their lives, because of current apathy toward environmental sustainability.

Classroom lights burn for entire weekends without occupants in the room. Some staff offices are so cold from the air-conditioning that people use portable heaters during the hot summer months. Mobile services on campus, such as Public Safety, lack emphasis on using fuel-efficient vehicles.

Lawrenceville campus SGA Vice President Nick Barbati acknowledged the student body’s apathetic attitude toward the ever-growing global issue of climate change.

“I absolutely think that’s a problem and that’s because we don’t pay directly for our electric bill — which allows that kind of attitude,” Barbati said. “But unfortunately what students need to realize is a lot of things go along with that.”

Up Route 206, a group of Princeton University students have banded together to form a local chapter of Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE). One of the main aims of SURGE, which was formed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998, is to unite activists in spreading environmental awareness among student bodies.

Discussions on campus sustainability have recently heated up within the Lawrenceville campus’ Student Senate, but there has yet to be an officially recognized student-run environmental organization on either of Rider’s campuses.

There is hope, though. An unrecognized, unfunded organization, known as Sustainable Rider, is slowly making its presence known on the Lawrenceville campus and is currently in its infancy.

Dr. Laura Hyatt, assistant professor of biology and an active member of Sustainable Lawrence, expressed optimism regarding the organization’s appeal to members of the Rider community and the impact it may have.

“Every student that I have talked to about it is really interested and faculty and staff are really interested in making the University more sustainable,” said Hyatt.

Phone calls and E-mails to Valerie Sodi, a student founder of Sustainable Rider, were not returned.

According to Hyatt, one of the first objectives that Sustainable Rider plans to organize is its own campus version of the Million Monitors Drive, which is a national movement created by the Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, most faculty and lab computers and monitors are set to go to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. Students should check their own energy setting, said Hyatt, because it can cost about $20 annually in electricity for a monitor, even when a screen saver is used.

The program would pit the residence halls and Greek Houses against each other. The winner will be the building which uses the least amount of energy based on monitor usage.

Although Rider doesn’t own a wind-tower or a power plant to produce energy, the administration has opened its eye toward the growing global problem.

“The whole issue of sustainability is an important one,” said President Mordechai Rozanski.

“As we are doing any construction, we want to make sure that we are being smart-growth oriented — that we are being environmentally sensitive and we are being green.”

According to Rozanski, the University has participated in Lawrence Township meetings that dealt with issues of sustainability.

CEOs and presidents around the country, including those heading colleges and universities, have continued to forge ahead in making their businesses green-friendly. According to Mike Reca, assistant vice president Auxiliary Services, Rider has kept the environment in its sights while devising plans for buildings such as the Student Recreation Center (SRC) and the New Residence Hall, which were both opened up in 2005.

“We use sustainability in mind when we use all products,” said Reca. “So how we maintain the buildings and the process to which we maintain the buildings will essentially be driven in that direction.”

Hyatt hopes Rider carries a sustainable attitude into its future construction, including a potentially new academic building and additional residence hall space.

“It would be great if that new academic building could be a showcase for sustainable practices,” she said.

Sustainable material and minimized heating costs are among the practices Hyatt hopes Rider will apply to future constructions, which are some of the specifications set out by the LEED Green Building Rating System for New Construction. According to Reca, the SRC is LEED-certified, but Hyatt challenged the university to aim higher.

“It would be great if that building could be platinum LEED certified,” she said.

Barbati proposed a challenge to both administration and the students.

“For me I would say is to step up and challenge other students to behave in a way that would be beneficial to the entire human race,” said Barbati. “If your roommate is leaving the lights on, don’t accept that as being OK. Ask them to turn them off, it may be something that you feel uncomfortable doing, but at the same time it is a lot more comfortable for the future of the earth.

“I think the community as a whole has a lot of growing to do in terms of tackling this problem, and that includes administration and students working in conjunction with one another,” said Barbati. “As far as I know by the actions of administration, they haven’t reached students, so in my mind they haven’t done enough.”

This story is the first part of an environmental sustainability series, which will run occasionally throughout the semester.