Josh Falcone – News Editor
Southern continues to achieve an environmentally friendly campus, with two of the university’s latest enterprises, new refillable water stations, and a successful community garden.
According to Suzanne Huminski and Heather Stearns from the Office of Sustainability, the university has begun installing refillable water stations, where people can refill a water bottle or sports bottle as opposed to constantly buying bottles throughout the day.
“All the stations are filtered water,” Stearns said.
The faculty and staff involved with the refillable water stations took into account that many users might think that the water used in the stations is tap, Stearns said. The stations have a displayed meter that changes from green to orange to then finally red when the filter needs to be replaced.
“We are excited both from the standpoint of reducing the amount of plastic that we produce on campus, that pollution, but also that the community is excited about them,” Huminski said. “We have gotten great responses.”
Stearns said she believes as more students discover the stations, they will be pleased by them.
“I think students are going to be happy with the refillable water stations.” Stearns said.
Stearns said the office worked with the new student orientation giving all incoming freshman a refillable water bottle that they can use at the water stations.
Stearns said the first refillable water station was installed on the third floor of the Adanti Student Center last semester. Huminski said this was in part due to the foot traffic it would get as well as a test to see if people would like the stations.
In addition to the first refillable water station on the third floor of the Student Center, the Southern community can take advantage of six more refillable water stations at this time. There are two located in Davis Hall, on the first and second floor. One is also located in the first floor lobby of Morrill Hall, the first floor of Jennings Hall, one in the Student Center Food Court, and a handicap accessible water station in the Engleman Hall close to the rotunda entrance.
Stearns said this fall the university will see two additional refillable water stations installed in the Wintergreen building and the Moore Fieldhouse.
“We would like to install as many as we can,” Huminski said beaming, “so this really is just the start.”
Stearns said she is thankful for the dedicated work of the university’s plumbing department.
“I did not think we would have seven stations up and running already, but the plumbing department worked hard over the summer and they were able to put in six stations,” Stearns said. “I am so grateful.”
Huminski said the number of times the stations are used this fall is going to be recorded.
“The Sustainable Learning Community, in one of their classes, they are going to be tracking the usage at the water stations during the fall semester,” she said. “So we will be able to tell if they are catching on.”
According to Huminski, the refillable water stations are not the only environmentally friendly endeavor currently flourishing on the campus of Southern.
“One of the really successful projects over the summer and continuing on for the next month or so is the campus garden,” she said.
Though the garden is thriving, Huminski said the Office of Sustainability can always use extra hands with it.
“There is a lot of work to do there so it is really helpful to us if we get kind of a steady stream whether it’s a club, or an INQ class, a biology class or a soil science class,” she said, “to come down for a day during their class period.”
Huminski said they would be welcome to come weed the garden, check out the garden and look to see if there is picking to do, or even watering, which is a necessity currently.
“Because there is so much manual labor there, having the volunteers come in is really valuable,” she said.
The garden has had a productive harvest of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, various herbs, corn, beans, and perennial flowers, Huminski said, and the university has put those fruitful crops to great value.
“It’s been a good year in the garden and we have donated over 100 pounds of produce to local soup kitchens, with much more coming in the next few weeks,” she said.
As long as the weather lasts, Huminski said, the garden will continue to grow and the office has some interest in resuming to plant once the season changes.
“We are interested in doing some colder weather crops with small shelters over them, Huminski said, “so we can experiment with growing in colder weather. That will be new for us, but we will give it a shot.”
According to Huminski the garden’s success thus far has been due to the amazing help of the Office of Sustainability, along with another student volunteer, who has overseen the execution of the campus garden.
“The three of them have made a wonderful difference in the garden this season,” she said.
Huminski said during the Day of Service, the office will have a work party in the garden.
