UW Gazette, February 28, 1996
     
     A new student Watgreen network is another step on the
road to campus environmental sustainability, network
organizers say.
          The larger Watgreen initiative began five years
ago in the environment and resource studies department to
provide students, faculty and staff with an opportunity to
contribute to the resolution of environmental issues at UW.
Watgreen became a campus-wide initiative last spring, and
representatives from each faculty were named to a
consultative committee.
     Now students - previously mainly engaged in Watgreen
through class environmental projects - are being asked to
play a further consultative role. Patti Cook, UW waste
management co-ordinator and co-chair of the Watgreen faculty
and staff committee, says the student network (SWN) will be
funded by the Federation of Students and will follow the
Watgreen vision, with a specific emphasis on promoting
environmental awareness on campus.
     Jeremy Steffler, a 2A environmental engineering
student, is convening the first meeting of the student
network tomorrow at 7 p.m. (in the boardroom of the
Federation of Students office). He says further student
involvement with Watgreen is long overdue.
     "Since the spring, there's been lots of work done from
the faculty and staff end of Watgreen, but the time and
money hasn't been there for students."
     He expects the network to have two main considerations:
advising faculty on the importance of incorporating
environmental themes into course work and focusing student-
centred environmental concerns, most probably on recycling,
water quality and transportation issues.
     But Cook and Steffler have some specific items they
would like considered: examination of "coffee and doughnut"
outlet waste streams (i.e.  where is the garbage going?),
promoting Lug-A-Mugs and reducing posters and other paper
advertising on campus.
     Hosting a conference on the environment is another long-
term objective for the SWN. As soon as the group gains
enough member and has a formal structure, staff members will
be invited to join to form a staff and student Watgreen
committee, Cook says.
     Until then though, the network's agenda will obviously
be driven by its membership, stresses Steffler, who hopes
members will come from all faculties. "For this to work, we
need a wide cross-section of the student population to be
represented."
     Adds Cook: "To have a student from each faculty, as a
part of a team looking at an issue, should make for some
very interesting results." She expects such a group would
bring environmental, economic, political and scientific
(among others) considerations to bear on all SWN
discussions. "No one person or faculty has all the answers."
     Steffler's already heard some positive response to the
network's attempt to refocus attention on environmental
issues, which have moved out of the media spotlight in the
mid-1990s.
     "I got this encouraging e-mail message that said it's
great that someone's ready to kick our butts again [over the
environment]. I think we need that kick-start.
     "And we don't have to be radical about it. We can
sensibly think about these things and also consider how
reducing and reusing make sensible economic sense. I think a
lot of students are interested in these issues but just
wanted the structure in which to discuss them. I hope this
network is it."
     For more information, contact Steffler at 885-0440 or
by e-mail at jr2steff@novice.