Sustainability Fee Committee implements its first set of proposals
The Sustainability Fee Committee began implementing its first proposals since its creation last year. These proposals were approved by the Sustainability Fee Committee in April and have been in the process of being implemented since, according to the Student Sustainability Fee website.
Here are the proposals that have been implemented, according to the Student Sustainability Fee Committee:
In August 2024, the Student Government Association started collecting the Student Sustainability Fee, a fee that would fund projects to make Central Michigan University more sustainable, according to the Student Sustainability Fee Committee website.
Every semester, a $5 fee is automatically charged to students' accounts, with a Sustainability Fee Opt-Out form for those who do not wish to participate. The funds from this fee are then used to fund sustainability projects throughout the university.
The committee received a total of $114,873.30 from the fee last academic year, Dunn said. Around $114,873 was used to fund the proposals, and the leftover money was allocated to fund the committee for this year. The committee will use the money from this semester's fee will be used in the next set of proposals.
"We are currently at zero dollars," Dunn said. "We're waiting for (this semester's) fees to come in."
This set of proposals marked the first-ever proposals for the sustainability fee, and were student-created, said SGA Chief of Staff Christian Dunn.
The committee set up a proposal submission form that allowed students and organizations to submit sustainable projects they wanted to see implemented on campus. The committee then discussed the committee’s budget, what was already being implemented by the university, the amount of money requested and how effective it would be. Then, they voted.
“With all that money, we then approved the projects,” Dunn said.
Of the proposals submitted, seven ideas were approved and only one was denied, Dunn said.
Five of the projects proposed were created by Central Sustainability, a student-run organization that works to make the university more sustainable, Sustainability Coordinator Kelsey Muth said.
“One of the main goals of Central Sustainability is really just to evaluate how different processes are happening on campus, and be creative and brainstorm ways that we can see them becoming more sustainable,” Muth said.
