ASUN goes green with new bill

It's Earth Week, and across the country, people are picking up trash that wasn't theirs, cutting back on their electricity use and biking instead of driving.

The Association of Students of the University of Nebraska will also be taking part in the festivities. Tonight, ASUN will introduce the first senate bill of the new administration. And it's a green one.

Megan Collins, a senior business administration major and ASUN president, said the bill shows ASUN is committed to the campaign platforms most of the elected senators promised, which include improving sustainability on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's campus.

Many student groups that have pledged to help the environment. The Environmental Resource Center, Roots and Shoots, Ecology Now and Emerging Green Builders are all aimed at helping the world green up. This ASUN bill will create a Sustainability Ad Hoc Committee that will unify all the sustainability efforts on campus.

"(The bill) will give us a better understanding of what needs to be done," Collins said. "I think sustainability is something ASUN has been pushing for since we were installed."

The bill will create a 10-member committee and be chaired by a student or students appointed by the Environmental Resource Center and approved by ASUN. The committee's job will be to work with environmental groups and understand what the other clubs are striving for so that everyone can be on the same page.

"In order for us to have the biggest impact, it's important to unify all the groups' individual efforts," Collins said.

This bill won't be the first time the eco-friendly clubs have teamed up with ASUN during Earth Week.

Katie Clear, a sophomore agricultural sciences and natural resources major and president of the Environmental Resource Center, said most of the groups that would be unified under this bill, as well as Lincoln Public Schools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts helped recycle the plastic bottles left in Memorial Stadium after the Spring Game last Saturday.

In an e-mail, Clear said 55 volunteers recycled 3,000 pounds of bottles in just 45 minutes after the game to kick off Earth Week.

ASUN and the Environmental Resource Center have also worked on Focus the Nation events going on at UNL this week.

"So it's very timely," Collins said of the bill.

Clear pointed out that although the bill unifies several student clubs with ASUN, it doesn't step on anyone's toes.

"The bill will by no means take over other clubs," Clear said. "With this, we will bring the clubs together under a common focus or project for the semester."

ryanboetel@dailynebraskan.com