Logan Mauney is a co-chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Environmental Affairs Committee, which is a part of the executive branch of UNC-CH Student Government. The EAC works with the university administration and various student groups to foster communication and collaboration and work on projects relating to issues like sustainability, recycling and financial transparency.
Last year you helped put together SBP Will Leimenstoll's platform; how has that and the specific goals and initiatives outlined in it informed your plans for the Environmental Affairs Committee (EAC) this year?
Mauney: Well of course we want to address the line items in the platform--those things you can just check off the box--and also we want to channel the spirit of the platform. The environment was integral to Will's platform, coming from his background. But also, we don't want it to limit us to certain topics.
We just got our committee last week, and one of the biggest things we're trying to push is that we want this to be their committee, and though we've got a long list of things that are already in the works--you know, things leftover from last year, things that we as co-chairs stumbled into in the first month of school--we want to hear their ideas, and try to work on those throughout the year too.
Can you tell me about how you plan to work with other environmental groups on campus? Eco-Harmony was a program started by the Cooper Administration to bring all those different groups together; what are you planning to do with that initiative this year?
Mauney: The whole idea there was just bringing together the leadership of student groups just for us to have a time to meet. I'm hoping bi-weekly, maybe once a month--I think it was a little more infrequently last year--but just to have a quick time so we can have that familiarity amongst ourselves.
Last year I got to go to some of the first meetings; I thought it was a great idea, because one of the things we've kind of identified this year is that we have the Office of Waste Reduction and the Sustainability Office, which are the administrative--the long term--you can think of them as the rock of environmental affairs on campus, but on the student side, things are pretty fragmented.
We as student groups aren't very aware of each other or what's going on. And I don't think there's ever been a time of stepping on toes or doing the same thing, but I think that in terms of accomplishing more, and making more of an impact, we can get a lot more done if we're really aware of each other, especially recognizing that we're coming from a lot of different angles.
I think in Will's platform it says something about 'supporting and collaborating with other student groups on campus,' and it's just that central idea that we want to be a hub for communication and collaboration, but the other half of it is that we want to streamline and initiate projects on campus.
That could definitely help students more easily find groups to volunteer with that really match their interests, too. Another issue on the platform is the lack of transparency regarding UNC's $2.2 billion endowment fund. What have you and the committee done about that so far?
Mauney: I think the date is October 29--we have to confirm that with the administrators--but it's the Endowment 101 Forum. We had some talks last year with the administrators about having this open place where they could talk about the endowment and what its uses are.
Being able to give a spiel on their side, to say, "[this is] the purpose of the endowment; this is how it's allocated; this is how it's managed,"--but then to have that opportunity for students to hopefully have some prepared questions, that we could get from those student organizations. Like Students for a Democratic Society had a big voice last year--we talked to them--Sierra Student Coalition, the Student Power Assembly--you know, working with them to have good questions and really get a student voice up there, and then hopefully have a spontaneous Q&A too. We want to make sure that students can get the full information in how the endowment impacts the environment, and also just creating the environment--in a different sense--on campus, of having that openness.
So basically trying to work with the administration and just bring everyone involved together to cooperate and get on the same page?
Mauney: I think that's exactly what we're trying to do. We've been talking to the executive board of officers under Will about something like an Endowment Transparency Committee that has student representation...That could be maybe a realistic step towards that divestment.
What are some other projects you're planning to work on this year?
Mauney: So we're going to be working with the dining halls, the Greek system and housing. In housing, dorm composting is something...the sustainability living-learning community sort of had the pilot program I think, but this year it's going strong, and actually...in Cobb they've got composting. But again we're hoping to set the model, see what sort of success we can have, and then make it an option that all students can have on campus.
In Lenoir they're going to be launching compost right outside Freshens. That was something that we brought up last year just as an idea, something that I was really excited about, and this year we're going to have the pilot at least. We're going to be supplying volunteers for that to monitor the compost and hopefully educate people too.
Could you tell me some about the Game Day Challenge and what else you might be working on with the Athletics Department?
Mauney: It's another thing that's coming up--on October 6 I think it's going to be this year--so it's one of our big focuses right now. Hopefully it's going to be a day where we can try some pilot projects. It could be a zero waste game, where we have a lot of volunteers that go through and sort everything into recycling and compost, and then that little bit of trash that would be left over; something like that that we can try one time, and see what the feasibility is of institutionalizing these practices. It could be composting in the Blue Zone or the chancellor's box. If we could convince the right people that this is something that, one, is really little effort on their part, and two, a big impact, or something that could be a positive PR move, and also just something they should do.
We've also collected some contacts with the Office of Waste Reduction to do a lot of research on our peer institutions and hopefully compile a report of best practices, and maybe a wish list for things that we could add here at UNC that there's already a model for at other universities.
And hopefully they'll be watching us too. Do you have any kind of more long-term goals or general themes for the committee to work on?
Mauney: One of our big pushes this year is visibility and outreach; we really just want to raise awareness and be like an educating tool. One of our big goals is to change the culture a little bit.
So it's things like tweeting short articles that could be interesting, or little things that students can do on campus, or little reminders. It's things like working with the administration to institutionalize maybe a little greener curriculum--that was one of the projects last year. You know in the top corners of the Daily Tar Heel there's a little tiny bit of empty space, but if there was just a little something, "remember to recycle," or something like that on every page--little things like that. Or maybe in the administration, [these issues], in a more tangible sense, could be part of the chancellor's platform, or part of the message of UNC.
I mean, we're the flagship university of the UNC system, and with this much influence and this many students, we can really set a good example--I think we have more of a responsibility to be a role model.
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