Collegiate Times

Do you believe that implementing a green fee will improve the Virginia Tech campus? A group of students along with the Virginia Tech Advisory Council for Environmental Sustainability believe so and have taken that question to the student body. ?Virginia Tech has a footprint and an influence beyond Blacksburg. We need to be more forward thinking in turns of environmental responsibility,? said Katelyn Keefe, one of the directors of the green fee proposal and a senior environmental policy and planning major. green fees are common at many public and private universities. The green fee would be a small increase to a student?s semester tuition and the money collected would go directly to environmentally conscious campus improvements. At universities of comparable size students pay as much as $10 or as little as $2 each semester, Keefe said. Virginia Tech has never had a green fee and only created the ACES a year ago, she said. The ACES is a group of students and faculty that promotes conservation. The green fee proposal is the first project of the ACES. This project was started in September of this semester and is currently testing the water for student support. A petition for green fee support has begun to circulate and, according the green fee committee, already has 750 signatures. ?We have started to pass around our petition forms in classrooms. A lot of students are 100 percent behind us. Our goal is to get 5,000 signatures, but we think it is important for the entire student body to support not only the green fee but environmental sustainability,? Keefe said. The green fee committee realizes that the proposal would cost each student a small amount of money, but would ultimately benefit the university in the long run. The money collected would fund efficient fuels, energy and lighting. ?The green fee proposal does not suggest that the university is not sympathetic to environmental needs. They do the best with what they have. The green fee petition hopes that students will take more personal responsibility about environmentally helpful changes,? Keefe said. ?A change that will make a big impact on this campus specifically would be to convert all campus vehicles to alternative energy. Using bio-diesel fuels in construction equipment or police cars would decrease dependency. The green fee is more important in the long run and can prevent student fees from increasing to meet rising operational costs,? said Richard Rich, professor of political science. If the green fee proposal is passed, Virginia Tech would join schools such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University and Western Washington University. Rich said a green fee is not a new idea and has had success at multiple universities. ?Western Washington University has used their green fees to convert 100 percent of their energy sources to wind generators, and other schools have used the money to utilize solar energy during peak usage seasons,? Rich said. The proposal for a green fee at Tech is still in its infancy, and the committee involved asks all students to help improve campus by e-mailing it at greenfee@vt.edu. ?A lot of people know Virginia Tech because of football, but implementing a green fee would give us an environmental image,? Keefe said.