by Heather Gabel
ASUNM vice president
and Lorenzo Garcia
ASUNM Senator
The Associated Students of UNM Senate has been hard at work as a whole and in its individual committees.
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In a previous article, I told you about the Finance Committee, the Presidential Appointments Committee and the Steering and Rules Committee. These are three committees that the ASUNM vice president assigns senators to every semester, according to the ASUNM Lawbook.
Well, on top of these three committees, the ASUNM Senate has three ad hoc committees this semester. These are informal committees that are created to help the ASUNM Senate meet their goals. The goals of the ASUNM Senate this semester are to work on creating an ASUNM position that will concentrate on marketing its services and projects to the UNM and Albuquerque community; make textbooks more accessible to students through a textbook exchange program; and to create a recycling program for the entire UNM community.
To help accomplish these goals the senators are serving on one of three ad hoc committees. These committees are the Marketing Committee, the Book Exchange Committee and the Recycling Committee, which is the focus of this week's column.
Currently, there are six senators that serve on the Recycling Committee. These include Sens. Brigman, Heidbrink, Kist, Reed, Vega and the chairman, Garcia. The main goal of the Recycling Committee is to create a more in-depth recycling program on campus by working with the University administration, student groups and the undergraduate student government.
Up to this point, the Recycling Committee has been researching the current measures that are taking place on campus in order to better understand what the possible barriers, if any, are keeping the University from creating a more extensive recycling program on campus.
At this point in time, there are five individuals employed by the recycling program. According to Recycling Coordinator Dean Jojola, there are three full-time and two part-time employees that pick up and transport approximately 1 million pounds of recyclable material every year to recycling facilities around Albuquerque. The materials mostly consist of white paper, newspaper and mixed paper. Aluminum and plastic are also recycled, however these recycling bins are only located in designated areas due to problems in the past where individuals would dispose of material other than the one designated for the bins.
With the current workforce, the University recycling program cannot provide additional services without hiring additional employees. Currently, the Recycling Program is funded through University Services, which allocates funds to various programs on campus. As of now, the Recycling Committee has learned that the most formidable barrier concerning a more extensive recycling program on campus is funding. Without an increase in funding, the recycling program would not be able to hire the additional assistance that would be needed to remove and transport added materials.
In addition to the University recycling program headed by Dean Jojola, the Student Union Building (SUB) director Walter Miller also intends to incorporate recycling in the SUB. However, the details of this plan are not available as of now. The Recycling Committee is presently putting together a petition to use student support in hopes of increasing the amount of funds the University Recycling Program will receive. Moreover, the Recycling Committee is working towards a recycling awareness campaign and is working with several student groups to achieve the goals set forth at the beginning of the semester.
The Recycling Committee is also working towards passing a resolution that expresses the undergraduate student government's opinion on a more in-depth recycling program. If you are unfamiliar with this term, a resolution expresses the feelings or desires of the senate on a particular subject which the senate does not wish to legislate or cannot take legislative action. A senate resolution is limited to the term of the session of the senate in which it was passed.
The Recycling Committee is optimistic that these actions will bring about positive changes on campus and will help the student body to become more aware of recycling efforts. If you or anyone you know would like to get involved with any of the ad hoc committees, please feel free to stop by the ASUNM office on the second floor of the Student Services Building, Room 262. Or call 277-5528 for more information.
