In order to further educate the Lawrence community about sustainability, the Sustainability Community Advisors (CAs) hosted an event called RecycleMania on Friday, Feb. 21. This event ran from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Mead Witter room of the Warch Campus Center.
The CAs had tables spread throughout the room for people to visit. Each Sustainability CA was in charge of their own table with some sort of interactive activity or game focused on recycling.
For each table a participant stopped at, they received an entry into the RecycleMania raffle. The prizes included a solar-powered backpack that could charge a phone as well as a waterproof Bluetooth speaker.
Originally, Residence Hall Director Nadir Carlson thought of the idea of RecycleMania. Carlson leads the sustainability focus area and collaborated with the Sustainability CAs on creating this event.
During Fall Term, the Sustainability CAs hosted a similar event called Get RCT’D. Get RCT’D was created with the intent to educate the Lawrence community about different disposal methods, including recycling, compost, trash and donation.
Similar to RecycleMania, Get RCT’D utilized a spread of tables. For this event, though, the tables were full of various disposable items. Participants competed against friends to sort the items into the appropriate disposal method. Sophomore Charlie Oertel originally came up with this idea, and the rest of the Sustainability CAs then collaborated to further develop the concept.
In addition to campus-wide events, Sustainability CAs are also encouraged to host programs within their halls to educate their residents about the topic of sustainability. Oertel stuck with his theme of gameshows when he crafted his Plantz Hall event that incorporated lessons about sustainability into a Jeopardy game.
Aside from sustainability, other focus areas for CAs include service and social responsibility, professional development, wellness and diversity. CAs are required to create two impacts each term that pertain to their focus area. Next term, though, the CAs will only be required to complete one impact in their focus area.
Next year, CAs will no longer have focus areas. Instead, they will be provided with a list of community goals that will include aspects of each of the areas. From there, they will select the goal they wish to target and is necessary for their community.
Rather than separating the CAs into focus areas, they will now be expected to incorporate different dimensions of each area into their community. This change reflects the continuous development of the CA job, as the Residential Education and Housing Office continues to adapt to its relatively new title and role on campus.