Posted by Olga Rangel

Congratulations to Texas A&M University! The Board of Regents approved the Aggie Green Fund last week. This means it is officially instated at the University and work can commence to get the fund going for implementation in the fall.

Or, you could say the work can continue since a group of students have been working non-stop along with A&M sustainability officer, Kelly Wellman, to detail the ideas planned for the fund.

“The goal is to be ready for the fall when students return with ideas,” stated Wellman, determined and excited for the Fund to finally unravel on campus.

Before it was sent to the Board of Regents, the group finalized the papers in her office and they worked with the administration’s finance group to send the plan to the President. There was also a lot of input and support from the student body representatives, the student body president being present to speak in favor of the green fund.

The Green Fund was approved by the board without opposition. The group will be spending the summer working on the policy framework and preparing an application for people to become members of the board that oversees green fund activities. The green fund advisory board will create a draft for project proposals and will be applying for money for the fund.

“During the campaign we had a clear image of how we envisioned the green fund,” says Faby Molina, a student who ran the referendum campaign during the spring, “now we have the opportunity to start building our vision”.

Posted by Trevor Lovell
From a press release issued by ReEnergize Texas on April 26th

Earth Week in Texas brought a major victory for student environmentalists. Student bodies at 5 state universities voted in favor of campus “green funds.” The institutions are among some of the state’s largest – UT Austin, UT San Antonio, UT El Paso, Texas A&M University, and the University of North Texas – and the funds are expected to generate a combined $8 million for sustainability projects over their five year lifespan.

“The message was about investing in a greener future for our campus,” said Cameron Tharp who headed the campaign at the University of North Texas where 82% of students voted in favor.

If each of the funds is approved by its respective board of regents, Texas would have a total of 7 public colleges with green funds, including Texas State University and Austin Community College, both of which already have such funds in place. California currently has 10 public colleges with green funds, the most in the country.

The initiatives have proven popular with voting students. At UT Austin, 71% of voters favored the new fee. At Texas A&M where a more heated debate took place 57% voted in favor. The new fees would range from $3 – $5 per semester.

“It was tougher at UT San Antonio,” says junior Pardeis Heidari, “because students had voted down a proposed $10 transportation fee earlier this semester. We had to educate the student body about how this fund was broader and would be placed under student control.”

The “Think Green Fund” campaign is being organized by ReEnergize Texas, a coalition of student groups focused on climate and energy issues in the state. The campaign is unique in that the Texas Legislature gave pre-approval to the necessary fees during the 2009 legislative session, clearing a major hurdle for most student-driven fees.

“It shows that our state lawmakers think this is an important priority,” said Jackie Trevino, leader of another campaign at UT Pan American scheduled to launch next fall.

Posted by Lorena Mondragon

 
On April 21 and 22, the UTEP student body passed the Green Fund referendum with 69% of the vote in favor of the measure. Students showed their support for an environmental cause in what is to some their second home, to a few their first, and to others their only, the UTEP campus.


Although the local media, not including UTEP’s own paper, The Prospector, did not reply to requests for coverage of this momentous occasion, after a rigorous year-long campaign that included passing out flyers cut out from the school paper, t-shirts, buttons, wristbands, pasting recycled posters, conducting class raps and hundreds of surveys, holding training sessions and open forums, writing editorials, press releases, news articles, and a Facebook group with more than 200 members, the student organization the Environmental Advocates proved UTEP students can commit $3 per semester, or $1.50 in summer sessions, for sustainable projects based on Texas H.B. 3353, raising about $130,000 a year for five years. Projects would then be approved by a grant-making committee containing a student-majority.

The Environmental Advocates, composed of members spanning the colleges, from the College of Liberal Arts to the College of Science, also received full support and sponsorship from the Student Government Association. SGA President Alex Munoz provided assistance in the open forums and in drafting the referendum, while Senate Majority Leader Cesar Monsivais sponsored the referendum.
Once the referendum undergoes final approval by the UT System Board of Regents, a student body of more than 20,000, UTEP students will have the opportunity of either being part of the grant-making committee for the projects, or submitting their own project ideas. Regardless, UTEP students have become empowered while simultaneously helping to transform their first, second or only home into a more sustainable one.

Posted by Trevor Lovell

 
Let me begin by saying congratulations to the Aggie Green Fund team for a HUGE victory tonight! They set a precedent for campus sustainability in Texas and their efforts will raise $1.5million for green projects over the next five years. Seriously… well done!

We knew that if there was one campus where passing a green fund would be tough, it would be Texas A&M. The group we worked with was smart and dedicated, but they had big obstacles to overcome.

Then it got worse. As the bill to put the green fund on the ballot moved through the Student Senate it caught the attention of several members of Texas Aggie Conservatives (formerly the Young Conservatives of Texas) who decided to oppose it as a primary focus for their on-campus activism. The Aggie Green Fund team was ready for a robust debate, we were ready to support them, but we weren’t ready for a campaign loaded with misleading statements, personal attacks, and outright lies.

Leaders of Texas Aggie Conservatives invited their friends and members to a Facebook group called “Aggies Against the Green Fund” which they used to attract more fair-minded people who might be repelled by tactics used by more hardcore members. These included two flyers which were distributed on campus containing information that was not misleading, it was false.

The first such flyer claimed that voting for the Aggie Green Fund would result in shower timers being placed on dorm showers. The flyer employed absolute language, insinuating that this was not a potential project, but a definite one. The other one claimed that voting for the Aggie Green Fund would raise costs for an average student by $90 over his/her academic career. Since the fee was only $3 per semester or $1.50 per summer session, a more reasonable range would be $24-$36. Texas Aggie Conservatives claimed the flyer was justified because state law would allow the $3 fee to be raised to as much as $10, and further claimed that it could be interpreted to give the Board of Regents approval to make that change without student approval. Sounds very legalistic and specific, but there’s just one problem- subsection (d) of the bill (HB3353) clearly states that any increase in the fee must first be voted on by the student body. This second flyer clearly should have been thrown out by the Election Commission and the group distributing sanctioned. It is unclear at this time why this wasn’t done.

Despite these tactics and others, the final vote came in with more than 57% of student voters supporting the Aggie Green Fund! Leaders of the opposition group have vowed to keep fighting, but their members were clearly demoralized at having failed to make a small fee for smart sustainability projects into a wedge issue. Even with false information being spread about the costs and results of the fund, a large majority chose to move forward with what they knew to be in the best interest of both their campus and the planet.

Again, well done Aggie Green Fund! Go celebrate, get refocused on classes and whatever else you sacrificed to make this a victory, and know that what you did this week will inspire others to follow your lead.

Posted by Trevor Lovell

 
On Wednesday, the UT Austin student body became the first to vote in favor of a new green fund for a public university in Texas since Texas State did so in 2003! It was a big first victory for ReEnergize Texas and the Think Green Fund campaign.


The final count showed 71% of student voters were in favor of the referendum which asked students whether they would like to pay an additional $5 per semester to support sustainability initiatives at the UT Austin campus. The proposal will now move to the UT System Board of Regents which will decide whether or not to implement the $5 fee as requested by the student body.

If implemented, the fund is expected to raise $2.5million over its five year lifespan. If students want the green fund to continue after that point, they will have to vote to renew the $5 fee.

Reached for comment today, UT Austin’s Director of Sustainability, Jim Walker, had this to say:

“The green fund will likely help a lot of good projects on campus move forward. Sustainability is a growing priority here on campus, as this vote demonstrates. I look forward to working with students on projects that show we’re moving in a direction that is supported by the student body.”

Jacob Bintliff who has headed the campaign is presumed to be taking a very well-deserved nap.

The Longhorn announcement came just one day ahead of the announcement at Texas A&M (expected later tonight). The two schools have been bitter rivals in many arenas, and recently sustainability has become one of them. Various indices of campus sustainability rank the two institutions similarly. Both have recently hired staff specifically for sustainability. It is yet to be seen whether both will actually create green funds.

Congratulations to the student campaigners at UT Austin. You have put Texas on track to having more public universities with green funds than any other in the country!