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Photo by JOE GAMBINO/ The Slate |
SEAC holds Campus Climate Challenge to promote a cleaner environment in Shippensburg and abroad
By LINDSEY HAYWARD
News Writer
The Student Environmental Action Coalition held the annual Campus Climate Challenge on Oct. 25.
The SEAC clean energy movement began with a small number of students with the desire to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the late 1990s.
The Campus Climate Challenge is a project spanning across the United States and Canada, including more than 300 high schools and colleges, with the common goal of creating 100 percent clean energy policies at their schools.
Shippensburg University students have already taken action to help improve the environment, save the ozone layer and live sustainable lifestyles.
The chapter at SU created the slogan “sustainability is sexy” for its Campus Climate Challenge event on Wednesday, which was featured on buttons.
The event gave students a look into the positive effects the student body could have on the environment and how they could influence those effects. SEAC president Kyle Shenk explained ways in which he plans to reduce harmful output of cars. One is to request grease from the dining halls, in which he thinks the SU community’s cars can run on.
“I met a guy using bio diesel fuel in his truck, and I was looking for an environmentally friendly project for the campus,” Shenk said. “So I figured that we use a lot of frying oil in the dining halls, so why not use it for running the school’s vehicles.”
Other goals of the campus’s SEAC chapter include reducing the campus’s harmful outputs by 20 percent by the year 2010 and reducing carbon emissions by 2030.
SEAC would also like to work with the campus to remove the harmful coal that is currently sitting around Heckles Field.
Because the coal sits directly on to the ground, nothing can stop it from running into water sources or plant life.
SEAC is always accepting and welcoming new, interested members.
“Membership of SEAC is one of the most important aspects to our club because the more students we have supporting our cause, the more likely we are to be taken seriously in our requests to improve our environment,” SEAC member Eudora Linde said.
The Campus Climate Challenge included fun activities to promote good energy, like tie dying, button making and having your picture taken with a thought bubble reading, “I support clean energy at Ship.”
As SEAC continues to press important issues for the future, and for future generations, the group asks for support from the student body.
Meetings take place on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. in the Anthony F. Ceddia Union Building, Room 319.
The Slate