Student Council’s Environmental Sustainability Committee is asking students for feedback on an initiative to create a sustainable University housing option for 10 to 20 students through a referendum that appears on the University Board Elections Web site. Voting started yesterday and will run through Friday.
“This is a way for Student Council to get student support behind a particular project; It’s a very formal way of gauging student interest,” Council President Matt Schrimper said. “Even more than a student survey or poll or petition, I really feel as though having the support of students through a formal referendum gives us as great deal of credibility as we work with the administration.”
The initiative plans to take a current Charlottesville house and complete various renovations and changes to make it an environmentally sustainable residence for 10 TO 20 upperclass students, Environmental Sustainability Committee member Michelle Henry said.
“We want to retrofit the house,” committee member Mark Williams said, adding that the residents of the house will be encouraged to use low-flow water faucet heads and will focus on other ways of reducing their ecological footprints.
“A few years ago students had an idea similar to this one, but it couldn’t get enough momentum,” Henry said, “Now that the University is focused on sustainability, this is the perfect time for this referendum.”
Henry said the sustainable house could also be used as a learning environment for students.
“This is a 360-degree learning experience,” Henry said, adding that Council hopes to create a classroom within the house where University faculty can teach and also use the house as a learning tool.
The value of such a house now rests in the hands of student voters, some of which likely do not know of the referendum. Alisa Abbott, chair of the University Board of Elections, said the Board’s institutional goal is to create a student voting system that runs smoothly.
“The Board of Elections was created to facilitate more democratic elections; this does not include publicizing in any way,” Abbott said. “Generally if we publicize a lot, it’s considered going beyond our call to duty.”
To inform students, Council plans to employ e-mail list-servs during the week, Schrimper said, to quickly distribute information about the referendum and the fact that it exists.
“It makes the most sense to send students a short e-mail with a link to the Web site the so they can cast their vote,” Schrimper said.
“We’d hope that students would be pleased to vote and we’re hoping to get approval from the student body to build this sustainable house.”
Henry added that the Environmental Sustainability Committee, in addition to using e-mail list-servs, will distribute a limited number of paper flyers. The committee, however, will focus primarily on informing students through sustainable means — primarily electronic communication and word-of-mouth publicity.
Committee members hope that University students vote on the referendum and provide Council with their feedback, Henry said. Students will be able to vote on the referendum until 6 p.m. Friday.
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