Editorial : University Senate should go green by using less paper
A graduate student proposed a ‘green’ idea at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting. The idea would allow for USen members to opt out of receiving the paper-dense packets of meeting minutes each month and to read the minutes online prior to each meeting instead. She also asked for a bin where members could safely recycle their packets and manila folders.
The student proposed an incredibly thoughtful idea, which fits into the university’s mission to become carbon neutral and to promote environmental sustainability.
Every month, the dozens of USen members receive pages of detailed reports, agenda items, curricula changes, etc. Tech-savvy members may already review the minutes on the governing body’s website, and others bring laptops to the meetings. For these senate members, eliminating the hard-copy versions would save money and paper.
Reusing the manila folders is also a reasonable option to consider. Though professors may have plenty of uses for them, it makes more sense to simply reuse the manila folders, which can get beat up or torn without much need for replacement.
Having a bin at each meeting for the purpose of securely recycling sensitive information seems a little far-fetched, as there are plenty of recycling bins on campus. As for sensitive papers, the Agenda Committee would have to pass these papers out at the meetings to those who depend solely on the public digital minutes anyway. Perhaps only recollecting sensitive papers and disposing of them properly would make more sense than finding a secure recycling bin and electing someone to be in charge of it after every meeting.
