Students vote for a sustainable campus
Earlier this month, students at the University of Illinois voted in student government elections. While turnout was low, some 5500 students cast ballots for senate and trustee candidates and for referenda on the ballot. The most popular measure on the ballot (receiving 77.1% support) was the Sustainable Campus referendum, which raises one of the campus environmental fees.
You may not know that students voted to create two different environmental fees in 2003 and 2007, both by ~70% margins of support. The fee created in 2003 is $2 per student assessed semesterly, and is restricted to clean energy and energy efficiency projects. The second fee, known as the Sustainable Campus Environment Fee, was created in 2007 in response to requests for funding for a broader range of environmental projects. This fee, a refundable $5 per semester, was up for increase to $14. Both of these fees are managed by the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), a committee of 10 students, advised by 10 faculty and staff members. This referendum should provide $1.1 million in funding for sustainability on campus — for tangible projects that reduce the environmental impact of the University of Illinois.
| A road in search of a reason
Read Part One from Monday here.
IF YOU BUILD IT...
Opponents of the Olympian Drive project often point out that the area destined for industrial development sits on one of the three most productive soils in the world, the others being in the Ukraine and in Argentina.
That's true, but productive does not mean profitable. For most of the first half of the 20th century, the most profitable agricultural county in the country was Los Angeles. [Today it's probably some pot-growing county in northern California, or a southwest Kansas county with a bunch of cattle feedlots in it — it's hard to measure.] So even productive and profitable doesn't mean the land will be kept in agriculture, as the second half of the twentieth century in L.A. shows.
It's the 35th anniversary of one of the greatest American movies: Chinatown. It's certainly in my top three; partly because it's a brilliant negation of that durable American storyline: the lone wolf hero who puts a society steeped in corruption back to rights [the final lines emphasizing the futility: "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."], and partly because it's about the nitty-gritty: real estate, local government, economic development, business, infrastructure, land use and agriculture, and driving farmers off the land to …
People confuse their cars with their homes. I can understand that. They're lounging in a reclining chair, talking on the phone, watching a movie and cramming salty foods into their fat faces. Sometimes they fall asleep. But the car is not the home. And when you steer your car on to public roads, you waive Constitutional rights enjoyed at home. Police can stop you without probable cause. Police can stop you without even particularized suspicion — just to see if …
(Ed. note: We posted this under Editors, but it's just Caleb and Joel that wrote it. Carry on. And leave Trig out of this.) As a society, we have made a habit out of hiding people with developmental disabilities. We have institutionalized them, we have sterilized them, we have shown them that they are not important to the fabric of our society. Our collective choice to recognize those with developmental disabilities as human beings with unique and genuine value is …
Seth Fein is my editor here at The People's Republic of Smile Politely. Therefore, you can be certain that anything you read below made it past Seth Fein. A couple weeks back, Seth wrote a reactionary piece about DUI. That's not surprising. DUI is a reactionary concept: It's only contemplated after-the-fact. WHY WE PUNISH Deterrence, retribution, incapacitation and rehabilitation are the four goals of punishment. In Illinois, we call our punishment system the "Department of Corrections" which proves that people …
Not being an Illini fan, it's easy for me to hate on something like the Orange Krush, the student cheering section of our university's basketball team. As a Purdue fan, I get jazzed about the Paint Crew, whose numbers make the Krush look like an amateur co-ed softball team on a rainy day. But I don't live in West Lafayette, and I don't consider them as part of my culture. So, the Orange Krush is on the hook here. Student …
February 14–21 is National Condom Week, and while educating your child about the use and effectiveness of condoms around Valentine's Day might seem scary or inappropriate, recent research suggests many parents are long overdue in addressing safer sex with their teens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur every year, with 15 to 24 year-olds making up half of these cases. Even more alarming, the heaviest Chlamydia and gonorrhea …
Before I begin, a few caveats: there are a bunch of great people who work at the News-Gazette, doing the best that they can under resource reductions in a tough time for newspapers as a commenter noted on one of our snarky posts earlier this week, they're utilizing their Twitter feed (as well as many of their reporters') as well as any media outlet in town we surely haven't figured out how to make money at online publishing either, and …
I've done a "Super Bowl Life Lessons" column for the last few years and, to be honest, I'm beginning to wonder if the Super Bowl as a cultural spectacle has all that much more to teach us. Guys are still oafs. Violence is still funny (especially so when it involves sumo wrestlers). Talking flowers and babies are still funny. Classic rockers are still old. The main innovation this year seems to be that guys not wearing pants is funny. Perhaps …
Most Recent Opinion Comments
Change is the only constant thing in this world. Change is just an indication that a particular place is improving or not. It is a good thing that there is a room for a change but it must be a change for the better. It is just…
Now that Olympian is probably a given, they’re going to have to rename the section between Willow and 45. Any suggestions? Now lets get onto Urbana’s next road to nowhere. Airport Rd., They want to extend it from Bartlow west to Lincoln thru 3 farm fields. One…
I had a great time reading around your post as I read it extensively. Gold
I’ve always suspected that there’s a direct correlation between projected land use for the Rt 150 corridor [Industrial / Commercial] and the drive to expand 74. See the CCRPC Future Land Use Map for details, and then take a look at who owns land there, and you…
The University does not subsidize the Airbus. For decades bus transportation to the airport was provided expressly for Institute of Aviation students. This service was paid for by the Institute of Aviation, not campus as a whole. Some of you may even remember the old orange or…
A book just published gives a very useful different perspective on the “growth for growth’s sake” model and its ecological unsustainability. It is “Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet” by Tim Jackson. The first chapter of the book can be downloaded via http://earthscan.co.uk/pwg . This…
I agree with most of the comments on the Orange “Krush.“ They are mostly immature, ignorant, college students who can’t wait for the next frat party so they can get wasted on Keystone light
“Since there is no congestion on 74, one wonders what he is talking about.“ - Duh. Perhaps the congestion is wishful thinking? And IL DOT is planning to spend $71 million taxpayer dollars widening I-74 between Champaign and Mahomet. I contacted IL DOT on the I-74 stuff. …
Great articles, btw.
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I love eating Vietnamese food, and having growing up my entire life eating it, I was excited to go. I really wanted to like this place because of all of the hype I had heard——unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. I got the pho (vietnamese soup) and thought…
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What is an antibiotic-free egg? And how can you tell?
Great article. I’ve always found that by making it in the blender, I can be my typical impatient self and pour tons of oil in at once. It’s very forgiving that way, though not fool proof.
I will be at Danu this evening. And seeing as tomorrow - St. Pat’s - is my birthday, I will be celebrating with tons of green and fun!
Big Blue will actually be on 6-9, despite what is posted elsewhere. Then, hightail it over to Bentley’s!
Ahh - good point - I will plug them in the appropriate sections.
Yeeee! This sounds so fun! Any word on covers for any/all of these? Maybe SP could spring for punch cards and some discounts if we make it to all, eh?
Ok, just tell me when I can exhale - Just curious, since all the globalists, carbon traders, and pretty much anyone with copious amounts of wealth have weighed in on population reduction in recent years, i was wondering what yer magic number was. Some of the more…
ESPN360!!!!! For those that don’t know, you can watch the ESPNs’ games on your puter.
...and given the lack of smiley emoticons i chose to employ, that reads far more sarcastically than i ever intended (my apologies). i actually find this to be a great article and an interesting discussion, seriously : )
Once it leaves the basement, it is then called what? hmmm…....could it be mainstream? accessible? appealing on a mass-level? POP??? Quickly it will become a fad, over-saturate the media, and piss people off. Then everyone can write articles based on how that shit sucks, too. chickens are…
So John is seeing all comments as being authored by John. I am seeing all comments as authored by me. The first comment was Mysterious McDade who evidently acquired an Optimism Hat and is now seeing how it fits.
No, everyone is me! Muahahaha! I so didn’t make that first comment so I thought maybe someone was trying to get my goat, adding me to the staff. I hope jumping to that conclusion is forgivable. Yeah, uh, I guess I should say that I swear I…
I have reached Nirvana, I guess. Everyone is me.
Something weird is happening.
WTF guys? Does impersonating a user in the comments section run afoul of your commenting policy?
In general, I think music is much more interesting now than in 1995. I definitely am very glad contemporary music has expanded beyond the four-piece rock lineup that dominated much of the 90’s. The point of the above isn’t so much about a sound or an instrument…
2010 is not 1995. I’m not sure why anyone would expect a music scene to remain stationary as the world of popular music moves around it. Also, today, making popular music with mainstream appeal and being innovative and cutting-edge are usually exact opposites.
I didn’t know that the LED was created here. That’s awesome.
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Ok, just tell me when I can exhale - Just curious, since all the globalists, carbon traders, and pretty much anyone with copious amounts of wealth have weighed in on population reduction in recent years, i was wondering what yer magic number was. Some of the more…