Last year, more than 26,000 pounds of refuse from the Rebel Market have been recycled, thanks to the university’s composting program. Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi Green Fund is accepting project proposals through March 23 for the spring funding cycle.
The Green Fund provides financial support for the implementation of innovative, sustainable projects on campus. All Ole Miss students, faculty and staff are eligible to submit proposals. (View project proposal guidelines here.)
Since its creation in 2013, the Green Fund has awarded funding to more than 15 projects on campus, ranging from the installation of several campus hydration stations to the establishment of the UM Compost Program, which has diverted more than 50,000 pounds of campus food waste from the landfill in three years.
“I never saw myself as an activist or anything,” said Grace Herrington, a sophomore engineering major who proposed a recycling program in Residential College South to the Green Fund during the fall 2015 funding cycle.
“There were just no easy options for recycling, so (my friends and I) started collecting on our own. We realized that others were doing the same and saw willingness to recycle if the tools were provided. The Green Fund was the best chance to make that happen.”
Herrington’s proposal, which will be implemented this spring, will provide all residence hall rooms in RC South with recycling bins, which students will then empty into larger recycling bins in the building’s trash rooms. The project also includes educational signage.
In addition to the RC South recycling pilot, projects funded last fall include the installation of a bike repair station at RC South, proposed by junior international studies major Madeleine Achgill, and “Dumpster Donations,” a project proposed by the Student Marketing Association that aims to donate items students might otherwise throw away during Move Out.
Another approved project was the Mississippi River Dance, which will take place in April as part of the National Water Dance event, a collection of dance artists and educators who use the medium of dance to call attention to pressing water issues. It will feature student dancers from Mississippi: The Dance Company.
“(The Mississippi River Dance) is a nontraditional project in that it is temporal and focuses on the use of the arts to call attention to sustainability issues,” said Jennifer Mizenko, UM professor of theatre arts and proposer of the project. “It advances the university’s commitment to sustainability issues by supporting the arts as a means to communicate the importance of clean water.”
The UM Green Fund Committee evaluates proposals on impact, visibility and feasibility. After proposals are reviewed, the committee will invite select proposers to present their ideas during a public presentation at 4 p.m. April 15. Projects that receive funding will be announced in early May.
“The proposal process was easy and great to do,” Herrington said. “The public speaking aspect can seem daunting, but the Green Fund really gives you a sense that we’re all in this together for a greener campus.”
Past projects funded include the purchase and sales of H20tty Toddy water bottles, which aimed to promote the use of reusable bottles; the upcoming installation of native plants on a portion of campus; the installation of low-emissivity film to some windows in the J.D. Williams Library, the expansion of the UM Compost Program; and the purchase of a campus Rhoades Car, which will be used as an active transportation alternative to golf cart.
In addition to funding allocated by the university, the UM Green Fund is supported by donations. The university will match all student donations by 50 percent. Learn more about the UM Green Fund at http://green.olemiss.edu/.