Campus Activities

The 2009 Sagan National Colloquium

The following activities are being lead by Ohio Wesleyan Students to promote sustainability on the Ohio Wesleyan University campus and in Delaware Community:

Solar OWU Project

As a part of the Solar OWU project, students will work together as a team and perform many diverse tasks, all of which are necessary to reach the goal of hopefully implementing solar power at OWU. Students will take measurements of sunlight at various locations and times to see what kind of incident light they have to work with. Students will research building energy consumption records for various campus buildings, and analyze spec sheets of solar panel arrays to see how well the campus can offset energy costs by implementing solar power.

Delaware and OWU Community Garden

The OWU community garden will be accessible to both OWU students and members of the Delaware community. It will help foster the integration and cooperation of the students and the surrounding population while promoting sustainability through locally grown, organic food.   Planning will take place in the fall and preparation and planting will take place in the spring. Although not many students will be involved in summer maintenance, members will build the foundation for its survival and organize a group in Delaware Community to be in charge for the growing season.

Expanded Recycling

The recycling program is primarily run by students who want to make a difference in the environment. Students volunteering for the “Expanded Recycling Program", will work to expand the current recycling program as well as take part in the emptying and monitoring of recycling bins in particular buildings on campus. Students also have the option of participating in the educational aspect by promoting the importance of recycling and what it can do for our environment.

Exploration of Local Food and Co-op

Where does our food come from? Many argue that the most environmentally friendly thing to do is to eat food grown closely to your home. Though it may be easy to travel to a grocery store to buy your food, many of these items may have traveled thousands of miles before reaching your table. This activity will explore the possibilities to eat locally on campus and in Delaware as well as examine the ways in which food is grown, transported, processed, and ultimately chosen by the consumer.

Greening the OWU Lawn Care System

This activity aims to make the OWU lawn care system more environmentally sound. There are many recommendations on how to cut down on the use of chemicals and water in lawn care, such as using native grass species, as well as organic lawn care services. Students participating in this activity will help research different lawn care options and then begin to implement them at OWU.

Flood Plain Terrace Restoration

UC150 students will help in the planning and installation of a flood plain plants in the hope that it will increase plant and animal diversity on campus, while reducing the need for mowing and spraying along the Delaware run. The UC150 students will learn how to plant and identify these trees, and they will learn about the process and benefits of restoring an ecosystem. They will also learn how to use a GPS in-order to document these new trees so they may be added to the list of the Jane-Decker Arboretum on Campus.

Every Second Counts

On the second day of each month, the members of “Every Second Counts” will hold a campus wide event encouraging the OWU community to make environmentally friendly choices. Each month students will hold a different event that works to promote a different area of sustainable living on campus.

Meatless Mondays

In an effort to make OWU more environmentally friendly, we are trying to introduce the concept of Meatless Mondays, to show students how to eat healthier food that is both good for you and good for the environment. Why Vegan? For the animals, for the environment and for you! UC150 students will work to bring about education, long-term commitment and menu changes to the campus community.

Composting

Composting is a great way to recycle organic household and yard waste, turning what would have gone to a landfill into nutrient-rich humus which stimulates plant growth and restores vitality to exhausted soil.  UC150 students will explore the fundamentals of composting. There are many different types of composts one can build and each differs in complexity and cost. Students will split into small groups and choose from a list of compost designs in which they will document a weekly journal the progress of their compost.

“Effloresce OWU”

OWU has a gorgeous campus, but even this beauty can be expanded upon! Campus currently contains many plants that give their splendor year after year, but also numerous others that wither and die, never to return, each winter. While these are both aesthetically excellent, these annual flowers consume time and money in order to be replenished like this. In order to cut down on the cost, our team plans to work towards replacing the annual flowers with perennials that can bring lasting blooms throughout the seasons.

Borrow a Bike

Students will arrange several stables of bikes that can be borrowed and used on campus. They will also research borrow-a-bike programs and why they work/don’t work. Plans include funds for bikes (used, donated?), optimal corral areas, check-out procedure, common locks, etc. The students hope to coordinate efforts with local bike shops and bike groups.

Paper-less Campus

Less Paper and More Trees! Students will raise awareness and develop a plan to reduce the immense amount of paper used in OWU’s classrooms and throughout the rest of the OWU community. The group will encourage professors and their students to participate in making more paper-friendly decisions by utilizing academic resources such as ERes, Blackboard, and PDFs, alongside the creation of double sided handouts/exams. They will record their progress throughout the semester. The group will also promote a paper-less campus day where they will challenge the OWU community to go 24 hours without printing and copying.

Biodiesel

Students will explore the establishment of a biodiesel processing program on campus and use with campus vehicles. Students will determine source of biomaterials (frat deep fryers, campus food service, local restaurants, etc.), set up processing, and find uses on campus. Students will also research waste oil at restaurants and OWU cafeteria: how much oil is used, what is it's quality, who disposes of it, what is the cost of disposing? They will research biodiesel: how is it made, who can use it, who already makes it, what are the costs of making it, and are there any legal problems with making it? Students will also explore biodiesel at OWU: where do we set up a biodiesel station, what materials do we need, who should we get the oil from, are there dangers to making biodiesel?

Geothermal Education

Students interested in eco-friendly forms of heating and cooling will find this to be a deeply engaging community service oriented research project involving the assessment of campus energy usage and investigation of geothermal heating and cooling uses on different campuses. This group of students would be involved in the research of these technologies, as well as the education of those in charge of planning the project.

Food Waste and Food Waste Reduction

The Food Waste and Food Waste Reduction project will begin with having students examine food waste on campus, with plans to expand to businesses surrounding campus. Main topics will revolve around how to conduct a waste audit, determining what food waste is viable for transport to homeless shelters/food banks, organizing an effective system for transporting such food and other topics of student interest. The project will also work closely with the compost project in determining what foods are viable for compost, how to effectively gather and transport this food and what the best method of composting is. This project will hopefully culminate in an effective food waste reduction system that students can take and teach to others, whether it be their roommate, professor or local business.

Rainwater Harvesting

Where can water on campus be "harvested?" This means finding places on campus where run-off precipitation can be collected and used. Possible links with outside spaces and community gardens project to find ways to use the water for landscape watering. There will be need to survey and assess how water drains from different buildings so as to find the best places to collect the water. Analysis of legal issues, health issues etc will be done and review of similar movements at other colleges (such as Oberlin). There will also be a move to reduce the overall water usage at Ohio Wesleyan. This will involve tracking total water usage of different buildings on campus and then creating programs to reduce the university's usage as well as each student's personal usage. How many hours a month are sprinklers used? How many students leave the tap on when shaving? Reward programs that create competition between the dorms to use the least water is just a start.

Mapping Green OWU / Project Documentation

This activity deals with locating key local environmental areas within the Delaware area and particularly the area nearby the Ohio Wesleyan community. Students will be researching particular locations throughout the Delaware county area where they will get ideas for how to make OWU a greener campus. Once the information is collected through brochures, Web sites, and other media, students will learn how to plot this information onto Google Earth. This information will be accessible to everyone on the OWU web page. This project will also include film documentation of all SNC projects.

Outside Spaces Project

The goal of the outdoor spaces project is to create areas on campus for both students and faculty that allow them to enjoy the outside environment OWU has to offer. One of our main objectives with this project is to create new activities such as outdoor basketball/volleyball courts and fitness stations, while not damaging any aesthetic value the campus has. We will work to integrate environmentally friendly equipment such as recycled materials and solar powered flood lights, as well as look for locations that will be accessible by all students.

OWU Disc Golf Course

OWU’s first Frisbee Golf Course: Do you like being outside? Are you creative? As part of the Outside Spaces project, students will work together in a group on creating a pleasant outdoor area that has the potential to bring people outside. Students will research, design and create an actual 18 hole Frisbee golf course that runs throughout the campus. Our goals for the course are simple: we want the course to be fun yet challenging, the course to incorporate a scenic perspective of OWU’s natural qualities and most importantly the hope that people will come outside for entertainment, thus cutting back on energy usage. If you are a fan of the frisbee than this is definitely the project for you, regardless of experience.

Waste OWU

Students will analyze the waste on campus with the perspective of "trash archeology." Knowing what we throw away will tell us more about ourselves and give us ideas on how, as a campus, we can improve our habits, efficiency and avoid wasteful practices. We will use our acquired knowledge to aid the composting and recycling projects on campus. Efforts will be made to make the campus aware of what we learn and plan for to future improvements.