Through a variety of events, the Wolfpack Environment Student Association is striving to get students on board with preserving the environment.
The group will be hosting the second annual Alleycat bike race Thursday, Feb. 2.
This event will help WESA raise money to go to Power Shift in Washington, D.C., where students from across the nation will talk with political figures and attend workshops that deal with the environment.
William Winner, faculty adviser for WESA and professor of environmental science and natural resources said he believes the conference gives students a voice.
“It’s more than just students learning about these issues on the political landscape in the heart of our political arena, but they also form a power shift, as the name suggests; a shift in telling the student’s message, about where their concerns are with respect to energy, environment and sustainability,” Winner said.
About 40 to 60 students regularly attend the WESA meetings, according to Winner.
Sonum Nerurkar, a WESA co-president and senior in environmental technology and management, had her own voice heard on campus.
Her idea for a solar gazebo was passed through the Think Outside the Brick competition.
Channeling solar energy has become increasingly popular in the environmental movement. A solar panel will even be installed in one of the standing structures on campus, according to Nerurkar.
In the past, the club has collaborated with the Campus Environmental Sustainability Team and Students for Solar, which is a group that had formed as a result of WESA.
“We work with the Sustainability Office on some of their initiatives and have gone dorm to dorm, trying to tell people to turn off their lights when they’re not using them or unplug their electronics when they’re not using them,” Nerurkar said.
Through WESA, the Students for Organic United Living Garden was also created.
The garden, which aspired to motivate people to grow their own foods, was recently vandalized.
“It is really unfortunate, but the good thing is they didn’t mess up any of our beds; two rice beds that are 12-by-24-feet, so we’re really grateful that nothing happened to where the vegetables are growing,” Catherine McKnight, senior in environmental science and co-president of WESA, said.
Students are welcomed to work in the SOUL Garden, located on Centennial Campus, every Sunday at 2 p.m, said McKnight.
Early planning has begun for the University to participate in Earth Hour, according McKnight.
Earth Hour, a grassroots movement for conserving energy that has turned into a global event, invites the human race to turn off their lights for just one hour March 31 of this year.
“We’ll be doing Earth Hour. We’re going to try to get more people involved with it. We’re really not sure yet, but we’d love to,” McKnight said.
Winner added since Earth Hour is done globally, students should expect something interesting if it happens here on campus.
Various workshops and a documentary series will be alternating in occurrence with WESA’s regular meetings Thursdays in Riddick 451.
The most current event will be a recycled craft workshop Thursday.
“We’re going to be using a lot of recyclable material like bottle caps to make bottle cap earrings and old T-shirt scraps to makes scarves or headbands,” McKnight said. “Just a lot of different things to get people thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t have to throw this out. I can actually reuse it and wear it or make something or sell it on
