Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series about ETSU’s sustainability measures. Keep watching future editions of the East Tennessean for the reset of the series. The stories were submitted by Mary Alice Basconi’s In-Depth Reporting class.

The East Tennessee State University student body voted in favor of the “green fee” last April to help make its campus more environmentally friendly.

The fee was proposed by the campus chapter of Initiative for Clean Energy, then revised and approved by the Student Government Association. When the fee was presented to the students, 83 percent of the 1,698 that participated voted in favor of the green fee.

The school asks students to pay an extra $5 on top of their regular tuition costs. That gives the school approximately $120,000 each year to spend on projects relating to sustainability.

Once the fee passed, the Campus Sustainability (Green) Fee Committee was formed to manage the money and projects. Michelle Morton, chair of the committee, said the green fee does more than fund eco-friendly initiatives around campus.

“The green fee does a multiple amount of things,” said Morton, who teaches in ETSU’s “Little Bucs” Child Studies Center. “The biggest thing is saving university energy costs, but it also educates everyone on sustainability practices.”

Morton, who co-authored the original proposal, said that the flexibility and inclusive nature of the green fee program will appeal to students.

“There are a lot of costs included in tuition for things that some students don’t use,” Morton said. “With the green fee, we invite students to share any ideas they might have with us, and students will begin to see some noticeable changes that they helped make.”

Although every student can have a say in how they think the money should be spent, only 1,698 students of the approximately 12,000 in 2008 voiced their opinion.

“It was actually a really high turnout,” Morton said. “The average turnout is closer to 10 percent, so we were much higher than TBR schools are used to.”

The committee distributed a flier in September asking students for their ideas on how to make the campus more sustainable and eco-friendly. As of Nov. 6, Morton received 18 suggestions.

“First of all, the ideas from the note have not been voted upon yet,” Morton said. “Some of them were very elaborate and had an estimated budget; some are just ideas.”

The Yellow Bike Program, the refurbished recycling center, an electronics recycling fair and an electric truck nicknamed “Ghost” are all initiatives brought on by the green fee.

The committee spent $94,000 of its $120,000 budget on these projects. The remaining $26,000 was added to the committee’s budget for 2010.

“What we’re hoping to do with the money left over is invest in a bigger project, like solar power,” Morton said. “It’d be good — if the students support it – to give ETSU an alternative as far as power goes.”

Even with the $26,000 addition, ETSU’s sustainability budget stays at roughly one-third the size of the state’s larger schools: University of Tennessee and University of Memphis. Memphis and UT’s budgets are roughly three times larger than ETSU’s because of larger student bodies. Still, despite ETSU’s smaller size and budget, its projects and initiatives are almost equal to those of the larger schools.

Since its inception in 2000, UT’s sustainability initiative – known as the “Make Orange Green” campaign – has sponsored tri-annual electronic recycling events, continues to upgrade its facilities with energy-efficient lighting and works to fill its transportation with hybrid and electric vehicles. In only a year and a half of existence, ETSU’s green fee has already funded these same projects.

Memphis, on the other hand, has yet to initiate a single project. The student government association vehemently opposed the sustainability measure, possibly because of the $40 tuition increase that Memphis’ Environmental Action Club proposed. Student support saved the initiative, and the school primarily invests its annual $360,000 budget in energy conservation. Memphis also boasts a unique sustainability measure: a “green” college. Known as TERRA (Technologically and Environmentally Responsive Residential Architecture), the program teaches architecture students how to design sustainable houses, predominately for urban areas.

“(TERRA) sounds like a really wonderful program,” Morton said. “I’d be happy to support a project like that here . if the students were in favor of it.”

In these early stages of ETSU’s green fee, however, the committee has no plans for such a large endeavor. Student suggestions and plausible sustainable alternatives are the primary focus of the SPC.

Over the course of this series, several aspects of ETSU’s sustainability measure will be observed. Kimberly Foli will examine the school’s efforts at energy efficiency; Jessica Harbin will follow the SPC’s spending and pending projects; Amanda Marsh will track the path of a recyclable plastic bottle once it leaves campus; Eileen Rush will explore ETSU’s paper-reduction efforts; and Jennifer White will speak with a man who makes sustainability a way of life.

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