By Rachel Lutz, Assistant Editorial Editor
The Students for a Greener Hofstra club has only been around for a short while, but has accomplished many of the green initiatives seen on campus today. Since 2008, they have achieved success in sponsoring a Sustainability Officer on campus, Music Fest, as well as Earth Week.
Students for a Greener Hofstra's current project is imposing a $5 fee for each car parked on campus. This would be a one-time fee that would be paid upon registering your vehicle with Public Safety. The money would go into the Green Initiative Fund, which would fund the Sustainability Officer's budget.The car fee would also be collected to fund scholarships and grants to be given to exceptional club members.
The club is also open for suggestions as to what they do with the vehicle fee fund. They hope to conduct a campus-wide survey to find out where Hofstra students think the money should go. After completion of the survey, Students for a Greener Hofstra, Student Government Association, the Sustainability Officer and a board of environmentally-aware faculty members would collectively decide what initiatives to invest the money into on campus.
Another project that the club is working on is to go to, along with anyone who wants to join, an environmental conference called Power Shift, sponsored by the Energy Action Coalition. Power Shift takes place conveniently over Hofstra's spring break, from April 15-18 of this year. The conference is in Washington, D.C. and only happens bi-annually. The goal is to involve 10,000 young people from all walks of life in "training boot camp" workshops to learn about clean energy sources, climate change, clean technology growth and job creation.
The conference previously featured speakers such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. After days spent learning about renewable resources, eco-friendly proposals and ideas for the environment, each person lobbied to their local representatives in Washington, D.C. for change.
Students for a Greener Hofstra, along with some members of the Progressive Student Union, attended the 2009 Power Shift conference. A record-breaking 12,000 people came to Washington, D.C. in February 2009, and 6,000 participated in the largest citizen lobby day in history.
The Power Shift 2009 conference also successfully demonstrated to shut down the Capital's coal-fired power plant.
Students for a Greener Hofstra can be found on Facebook. They meet on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the Small Clubs' office, which sits above the UniSpan in the Student Center.
Students for A Greener Hofstra made an appearance at Power Shift ‘09 to promote their cause. (Photo Courtesy of Laura Wesely)