There are many subcommittees within the umbrella of Campus Union, with the Facilities and Sustainability committee being one of them.
This committee, under the leadership of chairperson Anna Windle ’22, is hoping to relight the flame for a revamp and revitalization of Wofford’s sustainability and its facilities programs and management.
Windle is a senior environmental studies major with a passion for reducing the harmful impacts humans can have on the environment. The main goal and purpose of this committee is to “examine and attend to the environmental impacts Wofford’s campus has” and its impact on the world,” said Windle.
Facilities and Sustainability Committee members attend the regular Campus Union meetings and work hand in hand with Campus Union delegates to propose legislation to later be voted upon.
Windle said that she has been able to apply what she has learned about sustainability through her classes in environmental studies to this committee. She also emphasized the importance of Campus Union delegates being reachable by the student body.
However, this committee has a smaller budget than other, larger committees that are a part of Campus Union, so their opportunities for programming and new solutions are limited.
Despite the lack of funding, Windle and the committee are determined to bring about more awareness and increase the general knowledge of this committee across Wofford’s campus.
An Instagram account is in the works, in hopes to educate more students on the committee, to communicate with students and to increase participation at the committee’s events.
Plans for a week-long celebration of Earth Week are in the planning process, with a different event happening each day of the week.
The committee is working on improving the recycling at Wofford by proposing that recycling facilities and bins be placed in each dorm room to make recycling easily accessible for all.
In addition, the Facilities and Sustainability Committee would love to see recycling be implemented at the Greek Village, as dozens of cans are thrown out every weekend.
Along with this is their initiative to improve and update the informational recycling flyers and posters that students can see around campus. This would make the process of recycling easier and reduce the chances of contamination occurring, which Windle said is a large problem.
Windle said that she has seen many students disposing of landfill in designated recycling bins. This is problematic because once a bin has too much contamination, it can no longer be recycled and is disposed of with trash bins.
As far as the facilities portion of the committee goes, Windle and the committee have new ideas they hope to implement as well.
For example, with the expansion of Burwell, they hope the dining hall will accompany the implementation of new stations, especially for those with allergies and strict dietary restrictions, as well as more seating options.
In addition, the committee would like to implement an online Burwell suggestion box. This would serve as a place for students to add suggestions for food they would like to see in the dining halls, especially for those with allergies and dietary restrictions.
