Less plastic and more eco-friendly.
This is what the Student Government Association is hoping to see more on campus next semester.
SGA has put in a bid to get hydration stations installed on campus, including the Wellness Center.
Dr. Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and employment, said they will begin with five stations costing over $12,147 and if the program is successful, the university can add additional stations.
The equipment alone has a price tag of $7,147. This includes three cooler combos, three retro fit, an in-wall unit and a surface mount.
SGA is partnering with the Wellness Center and Student Affairs on this project, contributing $2,000 from the SGA budget.
Lamb presented the idea to SGA after seeing that other schools had implemented a similar program.
“Students, faculty and staff will now be able to access purified drinking water without disposing a large number of plastic water bottles into our landfills,” Lamb said. “They will no longer need to purchase bottled water, as purified drinking water will not be available on campus for free. All one needs is their own reusable container.”
Lamb said the stations are environmental, healthy and inexpensive.
“It promotes health and environmental concerns and is a benefit for the campus,” SGA president Kyle Christian said. “This is something we can brag about in terms of having a green initiative and MSU being environmentally sensitive.”
Christian said there are plans for SGA to have personalized water bottles free for students as well starting next semester.
“There has been other effects on campus to do recycling and other things, but they never really work out,” Christian said. “I think don’t we are as environmentally friendly as we should be. Environmental concerns are long-term problems and they aren’t things that are going to effect students immediately. It is just human nature to be concerned about more pressing matters and we aren’t thinking long-term on how being eco-friendly would effect us.”
Christian said it is SGA responsibility to use its influence to make MSU a more green campus.
