Student Senate Environmental Committee
Protecting the planet is a group effort so join us! Even if you cannot make the meeting times, we would love to keep you informed via email of the various environmental activities happening on campus all school year, including our own activities you can be involved in. SMU students can become committee members by filling out this simple online application, or emal us at SMUenvirocomm@yahoo.com.
Environment Committee History
The Environment Committee has recently been the most active committee in the Student Senate and is one of the most active organizations on campus. In fact, the previous Environment Committee Chair was named the 2006 Student Senate Chairman of the Year and awarded the 2006 Avella Winn Hay award for scholarship, character, and contribution to the SMU community.
Although the Senate Environment Committee has largely concentrated on recycling in recent years, it has also worked to encourage energy conservation and efficiency on campus. It has helped revamp the campus recycling program as it evolved into the new single-stream recycling system, while also developing cell phone recycling, ink-jet cartridge recycling, and boulevard recycling programs.
The Environment Committee has become a vital and strong arm of the Student Senate and has been central in practically every positive environmental change that has happened on campus in recent years.
Now more than ever, the committee has the potential to help influence more environmentally responsible business practices and policies on campus. Through its recent Senate resolutions (link to legislation_page), the committee has pursued approval from the SMU administration of proposals regarding institutionalized policies to make SMU’s business practices more environmentally friendly (with mixed but also positive results) and has also initiated annual environmental activities/events that will hopefully become adopted, SMU traditions in the long run.
The SMU Student Senate Environment Committee was created during the 1989-1990 school year in response to the many local and global environmental alarms sounding at that time, which had made much of the SMU student body concerned about the sustainability of our societal practices.