By Miguel Detillier
Team Change are planning to have their first meetings this week at Volunteer State Community College.
Le-Ellen Dayhuff, Assistant Professor of Math, said that these meetings will start from 2:20 p.m. on Sept. 7 and 8. Dayhuff also said that this club has not made any confirmation on where they will have their first meetings.
“We are also planning to have a community-wide stream clean-up event on Saturday, Sept. 17 at Mansker Creek in Goodlettsville from 9 a.m.-noon, and this event can count for TN Promise hours to students who are on the TN Promise scholarship,” said Kelly Ormsby, Assistant Professor of English. “Not only this event will help out our environment, but it will also help improve our water quality.”
Dayhuff said that this club will be advertising the stream clean up event at Team Change meetings this week.
“Besides getting involved in stream clean-ups, we have also participated in many events like Earth Hour when they handed out reusable metal water bottles to students who participated in Earth Hour, and at the Earth Day Festival when they did a drawing for students to win t-shirts made out of recycled plastic,” said Dayhuff. “We would also have speakers on campus like Jeff Barry who spoke out on energy savings, and sometimes we would also sometimes show films, and that we would also do workdays at the Vol State Community Garden and tree dedications to retired Vol State faculty members like when we grew two trees in dedication of Nancy Morris and Richard Harville, and we would also participate in tree plantings at parks with the Tennessee Environmental Council.”
Keith Bell, Associate Professor of Geography, said that Team Change is part of the Campus Sustainability Committee, and that the core mission of the Committee is to allocate funds procured from the Sustainable Campus Fee Program in a responsible and effective manner. Bell also said that the Campus Sustainability Committee seeks to reduce the rate at which Vol State contributes to the depletion and degradation of natural resources, and to increase the use of renewable resources, especially with the purchase of “Green Power Switch” energy from the Tennessee Valley Authority, and to adopt and expand other sustainable measures that can enhance the physical environment and decrease their ecological footprint, and to foster a culture of sustainability across campus through “green” philosophy and broad-based societal change.
“We hope that we can make campus sustainability efficient by encouraging our students to recycle and also by helping them protect our environment,” said Bell.
Ormsby confirms that this club is a great way for students to get involved around campus. Ormsby also said that she really enjoys working with students in Team Change off-campus on projects like stream clean-ups.
“Our goals for this club is to make the campus more sustainable and to help our faculty, staff, and students to be more aware of how our choices affect our environment,” said Dayhuff.
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