by Ashleigh Sanchez
Daily Lobo
The University put students to work to make campus more sustainable.
A Community and Regional Planning class was employed to research practical ways to increase sustainability, instructor Bill Fleming said.
Fleming said the students worked as a planning company for the Student Affairs Office and the Sustainability Task Force.
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"They essentially were clients. There was no difference," he said. "The task force asked us to evaluate current conditions in the study areas, and Student Affairs wanted input on how to improve it."
The class held a forum Monday to get student input on its findings.
The class will present its recommendations at 2 p.m. Dec. 12 in the SUB Lobo Rooms A and B.
"President Schmidly and UNM have been working very hard toward achieving a sustainable campus," student Susan Clair said. "Our presentation hopes to help UNM go even further."
Clair said the class was divided into groups that researched aspects of sustainability in the Cornell Mall area, which includes the SUB and outdoor areas near Popejoy and the parking structure.
Their research included food, landscaping, recycling, artwork, outdoor furniture, pavement treatments and rainwater harvesting, she said.
The students discovered that installing porous pavement would make the area most sustainable.
"When rain hits normal pavement, it just runs off or evaporates," Clair said. "Porous pavement allows rainfall to penetrate through to the ground to the water table."
Another suggestion was rainfall harvesting on rooftops.
"The students discovered that if only 20 percent of the water that falls on rooftops was captured, it would be twice as much as would be needed to water all the plants in the Cornell Mall study area," Fleming said.
Planting gardens with vegetables and herbs was also proposed, as well as providing locally grown, organic food in the SUB.
Student Chris Ramirez, who planned the forum, said student input was an important part of the project.
"We want to involve students all the way through the final stages of planning," he said. "We will type up the feedback we get at the forum and include it in our final presentation."
Ramirez said Cornell Mall was chosen because it is one of the most used areas of UNM.
"We can make Cornell Mall a good model for what the rest of campus can do," he said. "The right balance of sustainable ideas will make UNM a healthy and vibrant place."
