As an institution devoted to bringing state of the art programs, research and technology to campus, Virginia Tech has continually demonstrated its ability to create positive change both locally and globally.
Our environmental awareness programs, in conjunction with student involvement through clubs on campus, have done much to increase student and faculty support for being environmentally conscious.
As a political science major, I constantly hear from professors who are truly concerned about political ideas related to global warming, our responsibility to conserve and the impact we can make on our campus and community. I'm delighted that these educators have decided to use their pulpit in order to further a cause which they obviously hold close to their hearts.
What I can't help wondering, however, is why after immediately hearing of the horrors of global warming, or the reason they didn't have enough handouts for the class (paper conservation), or how America is one of the most wasteful nations, they reach under their desks and take a long sip out of their bottled water.
I'll admit it myself, I love the convenience of grabbing bottle after bottle of easy-to-carry water, but I'm also not the one preaching to others about our need to conserve. It is easy to start initiatives for conservation on campus, and equally easy for a teacher to try to educate a class on limiting wastefulness, but what seems nearly impossible for those same faculty members and administrators to do is follow their own guidelines.
If global warming has nearly been proven, as I hear almost weekly from professors, why aren't they doing their small parts to help prevent its continuation?
Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I find it hard to take these claims seriously when the same person who is teaching me that global warming will cause enormous harm to our children and grand-children are also asking me to print-out and read 20-page research papers on the subject.
Asking students to print out papers on their own does not waste any less paper than printing and handing it out yourself (in fact, it most likely is more wasteful considering the printers at Virginia Tech are more efficient than our individual ones).
While I am on the subject of those who preach about ways to save the planet, should students take the initiative to discover the kinds of cars or SUVs are being driven by administrators or professors?
Should a proponent's verbal endorsement for significant social change be measured against that proponent's actual personal and professional sacrifices? Do they moderate the heat and air conditioning in their homes and cars?
Do they wonder how much energy a hair dryer burns while they are getting ready to teach their class in the morning?
Do they walk or ride a bike to campus, or do they instead drive a gas guzzler? When they purchase foods at the local grocery store do they favor colorful packaging of instant foods, or do they choose practical, economical ways to prepare a dinner?
I'm sure each time you visit the Tech Web site, you see the wonderful examples of our experts inventing ways to limit our environmental impact, help stop eroding streams, bring clean water to African villages, and many other noteworthy efforts.
Tech even decided last year to convert 35 acres of campus from turf grasses to environmentally friendly native grass.
What I can't help but wonder, however, is that while these new stories help Tech's image, why are administrators neglecting the small, less-groundbreaking changes they can make?
For those who have ever lived in a residence hall on campus, the attempts to encourage students to recycle are almost laughable.
As a resident of East Ambler-Johnston hall last year, I can assure you that not once in my visits to friends' and neighbors' rooms did I ever see one of those big, blue recycling bins being used correctly.
For some, it was a convenient chair, for others it was a storage container and for still others it was stored in the trunk of their car until the end of the year.
In a perfect world, students would use one-tenth of their residence hall room floors to store old bottles and paper in the large recycling bin, but for those of us who want an insect-free place to live, a more suitable recycling procedure should be developed.
Perhaps those who are responsible for putting recycling bins in the hallways of academic buildings would consider placing similar bins in the hallways of the dorm buildings.
Although a measure such as this would be more time-consuming and provide less instant gratification from the media, those who truly care about the environment should consider it. As we all know, true change begins at home, with individuals deciding to alter their ways to create a better world. Encouraging thousands of on-campus residents to recycle through a reasonable system would make far more of an impact than those students sitting in class, hearing teachers preach about global warming in between taking swigs from their natural spring bottled water.