Getting greener
'Green fee' approved by students helps support sustainability efforts
Max Hrenda
Issue date: 11/23/09 Section: The Scene
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The East Tennessee State University student body voted in favor of the "green fee" last April to help make its campus more environmentally friendly.
The fee was proposed by the campus chapter of Initiative for Clean Energy, then revised and approved by the Student Government Association. When the fee was presented to the students, 83 percent of the 1,698 that participated voted in favor of the green fee.
The school asks students to pay an extra $5 on top of their regular tuition costs. That gives the school approximately $120,000 each year to spend on projects relating to sustainability.
Once the fee passed, the Campus Sustainability (Green) Fee Committee was formed to manage the money and projects. Michelle Morton, chair of the committee, said the green fee does more than fund eco-friendly initiatives around campus.
"The green fee does a multiple amount of things," said Morton, who teaches in ETSU's "Little Bucs" Child Studies Center. "The biggest thing is saving university energy costs, but it also educates everyone on sustainability practices."
Morton, who co-authored the original proposal, said that the flexibility and inclusive nature of the green fee program will appeal to students.
"There are a lot of costs included in tuition for things that some students don't use," Morton said. "With the green fee, we invite students to share any ideas they might have with us, and students will begin to see some noticeable changes that they helped make."
Although every student can have a say in how they think the money should be spent, only 1,698 students of the approximately 12,000 in 2008 voiced their opinion.
"It was actually a really high turnout," Morton said. "The average turnout is closer to 10 percent, so we were much higher than TBR schools are used to."
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