When Emily Neustrom and Alisha Andrews saw the LSU Green Campus Initiative’s plans for a more environmentally sustainable university, they knew there must be a way to get students more involved. Neustrom, horticulture graduate student, and Andrews, horticulture senior, teamed up with Carl Motsenbocker, horticulture professor, to create Exploring Campus Sustainability, a HORT 4012 course, focused on creating student-generated projects for a more eco-friendly campus. “We are focusing on the low-hanging fruit projects,” Neustrom said. “In other words, the ones that are easier to accomplish and low on costs so that we can get these beneficial projects underway and make LSU more sustainable.”Some of these proposed projects include a composting facility using wasted dining hall food and a student farm for certain campus fruits and vegetables.Denise Scribner, the University’s sustainability manager, said the Campus Committee for Sustainability approved this course once they were certain the class syllabus covered some of its objectives.”Faculty and students can make the largest contributions to sustainability through curriculum and research,” Scribner said. Neustrom said the Campus Committee for Sustainability plans to review all of the final projects at the end of the semester and implement the best sustainable concepts.The course still has available seats and is worth one course credit in either agricultural economics, agronomy, biological engineering, horticulture or human ecology. But professors and students involved said they welcome anyone interested in learning about sustainable food systems or helping the University “go green.””We are trying to get all majors involved,” said Andrews. “We have students majored in arts and sciences, biological engineering, oceanography and horticulture.” —-Contact Peter Hubbs at [email protected]