The Sustainability Initiative Grant was created in 2008, and has since been underutilized on Fort Lewis College’s campus. The grant was proposed to fund and fulfill goals of sustainability throughout the campus.
The Sustainability Initiative Grant’s Emergence at FLC
The SIG is a student led effort to fund sustainability projects that benefit campus, Rachel Landis, coordinator of the environmental center at FLC, said. It is a way to internally fund and encourage initiatives for innovation in sustainability.
“Sustainability is not the isolated responsibility of student senate, or the environmental center, or the physical plant, but it’s an opportunity all of us can engage in,” Landis said.
In 2008 the Associated Students of Fort Lewis College proposed the grant as a 20 cent fee which is a substantial fee, Evan Wick, student body vice president at FLC, said. Theoretically, 1 penny in terms of fees on FLC’s campus generates $1,000. The Institutional Fee Review Board unanimously denied that fee proposal in 2008.
The proposal went to the ASFLC who amended the fee to 5 cents, and subsequently the budget committee, then the board of trustees approved the 5 cent fee, he said.
“I think 5 cents is more than appropriate,” Wick said.
Current Usage of SIG
Wick said, last year the ASFLC approved two grants but prior to that there have been no applications since 2013.
FLC’s Environmental Center is aware of the SIG, but the student body as a whole has less knowledge of it, Scott Greenler, chief parliamentarian for the ASFLC, said. “Students’ attention is often pulled in many different directions.”
Most people don’t know it is out there,” Landis said.
Organizing bodies such as student senate and the Financial Allocation Board do not put a lot of energy into advertising grants like this which lead to low participation, she said.
Where has the Money Been Going?
The EC has used the SIG to provide recycling bins to the residence halls, and to fund the Real Food Challenge labeling in the cafeteria, Landis said.
The Sustainability Summit has been funded by SIG, Landis said. Last year the Water Justice Project and the Campus Sustainability Council contributed grant money to fund the Summit.
The grant money that they were awarded last year was used exclusively for labeling the 6 percent real food that is in the dining hall, Greenler said.
The ASFLC discussed that the grant should be used to support student initiatives, not the initiatives of an organization that already have a budget, Greenler said.
Is It Enough?
As fee season approaches, the ASFLC does not anticipate a huge change in terms of funding the grant as it is not currently a problem because it has not been used several times since its conception, Wick said.
“Is this 5 cent fee enough to accomplish the purpose that it was created for? I would say that it is,” Greenler said.
Not all of the projects are going to use $5,000 and it is not all going to be used every year and that means that it is going to accumulate, such as we’ve seen in the last two years, Greenler said.
“The rate at which the fund is being used and the rate at which it is accumulating correspond fairly well,” he said.
The ASFLC plans to have discussions pertaining to the SIG. Student senate would like to know what FLC, as a whole, thinks, Wick said.
“If we think that we should be charging students $5,000 collectively for a grant that has sat, and not been used by the students that pay that fee, or if it should continue. We’re going to look at options for sure,” he said.