Environmental Club's Earth Week raises campus awareness
By: Ashton Simmons
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: News
"A lot of people don't know that water scarcity is a big problem domestically and around the world. We talked about things we could do locally and nationally that could help," Baber said.
Baratta said one of the initiatives discussed was a possible ban on the sale of bottled water on campus.
"The quality standards for city water are much higher than for bottled water. There is one person examining the quality in a company compared to a whole commission for the city," he said.
Thursday was highlighted by the environmentally conscious concert by Blueprint Music and the Brian Lesswing Band. DEC treasurer Kate Wright, who planned the event, feared that rain would spoil the concert, but was happy with the turnout, which included many Greencastle residents and on-lookers from various near-by porches. Wright praised the lead singer Kate Lamont and the wide variety of instruments used, including a banjo, cello, bass, guitar and "an interesting assortment of drums."
Freshman P.J. Gossett participated in the tree planting on Thursday afternoon, along with around a dozen other students, who planted a tree next to the Lilly Center.
"It was hard as hell to dig that hole," she said. "But it was definitely worth it."
On Friday, DePauw students and a crew from the physical plant came together in the Nature Park clean-up. Ramage noted that there were 12 tires pulled from the river. The physical plant crew used machinery to remove large sheets of scrap metal, while students followed, picking up smaller pieces.
"The amount of trash that is thrown out just from people walking the trails is a big deal, but people from the community have dumped their refrigerators and stoves there because they don't want to pay to have them removed," she said.
Ramage added that she had hoped for a bigger turnout because there is still a great deal of work to be done.
Saturday afternoon saw an "almost vegan" picnic on East College lawn. Students were treated to vegetable shish kebabs, chili and fruit salad, while Tim Martin discussed his experiences with trying to bring local food to DePauw. Cantril said the goal is to connect with local farmers and "start embracing our local growers."
"We still ship in our food from Indy, and they ship in the food from the rest of the world," he said. "So we are skipping over all the small families and farmers between here and there."
Cantril said that Martin suggested framing future Environmental Club activism in terms of the power structures on campus, through understanding which administrators had power over which part of campus.
"He is also encouraging us to see how students have power to change things in a top-down university environment," Cantril added. "The University doesn't expect students to be guiding where we get our food or other decisions like that."
Baratta said one of the initiatives discussed was a possible ban on the sale of bottled water on campus.
"The quality standards for city water are much higher than for bottled water. There is one person examining the quality in a company compared to a whole commission for the city," he said.
Thursday was highlighted by the environmentally conscious concert by Blueprint Music and the Brian Lesswing Band. DEC treasurer Kate Wright, who planned the event, feared that rain would spoil the concert, but was happy with the turnout, which included many Greencastle residents and on-lookers from various near-by porches. Wright praised the lead singer Kate Lamont and the wide variety of instruments used, including a banjo, cello, bass, guitar and "an interesting assortment of drums."
Freshman P.J. Gossett participated in the tree planting on Thursday afternoon, along with around a dozen other students, who planted a tree next to the Lilly Center.
"It was hard as hell to dig that hole," she said. "But it was definitely worth it."
On Friday, DePauw students and a crew from the physical plant came together in the Nature Park clean-up. Ramage noted that there were 12 tires pulled from the river. The physical plant crew used machinery to remove large sheets of scrap metal, while students followed, picking up smaller pieces.
"The amount of trash that is thrown out just from people walking the trails is a big deal, but people from the community have dumped their refrigerators and stoves there because they don't want to pay to have them removed," she said.
Ramage added that she had hoped for a bigger turnout because there is still a great deal of work to be done.
Saturday afternoon saw an "almost vegan" picnic on East College lawn. Students were treated to vegetable shish kebabs, chili and fruit salad, while Tim Martin discussed his experiences with trying to bring local food to DePauw. Cantril said the goal is to connect with local farmers and "start embracing our local growers."
"We still ship in our food from Indy, and they ship in the food from the rest of the world," he said. "So we are skipping over all the small families and farmers between here and there."
Cantril said that Martin suggested framing future Environmental Club activism in terms of the power structures on campus, through understanding which administrators had power over which part of campus.
"He is also encouraging us to see how students have power to change things in a top-down university environment," Cantril added. "The University doesn't expect students to be guiding where we get our food or other decisions like that."
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