University of Tennessee at Knoxville
EN-3: Student Life

Student Environmental Initiatives Committee: The mission of this committee is to identify, research, and recommend uses of funds supporting environmental stewardship and sustainability as well as clean and renewable energy technologies. http://www.utk.edu/events/index.php?eID=56836 SGA Environment and Sustainability Committee: This group strives to keep the university’s campus clean and green. They achieve this goal through their Campus Cleanup each semester, their Pick Up Your Butts event in the spring, and other events throughout the year. http://sga.utk.edu/branches/student-services/student-services-committees/environment-sustainability/ S.P.E.A.K. is a self-governed group of students who concern themselves with and seek to remedy environmental problems on campus, locally, regionally and worldwide. http://web.utk.edu/~speak/ Project VEGGIE: Through maintaining a student-run community garden on campus, Project VEGGIE seek to educate students in order that they might make a difference when they leave campus by living a sustainable life or even starting their own community gardens. http://www.projectveggie.org/Project_VEGGIE/Home.html Progressive Student Alliance – UT Chapter: UT’s Progressive Student Alliance organizes for social justice. As an activist focused, student-governed group, they fight for issues on campus and in the community through grassroots organizing efforts and popular education. http://web.utk.edu/~psa/ Nourish International: This group is a student-run movement to eradicate global poverty. During the school year, undergraduate students organize as a Nourish Chapter in which they raise money through small businesses called Ventures. Using the money they earn, they select a sustainable development Project to fund. Over the past summer, they traveled abroad to Guatemala work alongside Guatemalan teachers, UPAVIM, and Indiana University students to provide supplemental education to children in English, math, and music. In the previous two years they also traveled to Uganda and Peru, developing a sustainable garden project to feed school children and potable water systems. http://nourish.org/students/utk/ Environmental Law Organization: This student-governed group seeks to connect its members to each other and the broader environmental law community, inform them of the environmental law and policy issues they are likely to encounter during their careers, and empower them to confront those issues thoughtfully and practically. http://web.utk.edu/~elo/ Alternative Breaks: These trips provide a fun and educational opportunity for University of Tennessee students to experience something unique during their university Fall or Spring break. The trips provide an affordable option for students who are interested in giving back to the national community through meaningful and collaborative community service. Each trip is centered on a theme that addresses a specific social issue unique to the community being served. http://leadershipandservice.utk.edu/involved_altbreaks.php

The student-governed group Project V.E.G.G.I.E. began a student community garden in 2012 to allow students to learn how to grow food using sustainable practices. Current and recent projects include starting a worm bin for vermicomposting, building raised beds to demonstrate space efficient urban farming, and implementing a sensor grid that will allow them to gather air, water, light, and soil metrics in the garden. Additionally, the UT Organic Farm is a teaching farm run by the UT Institute of Agriculture to allow students and local farmers to gain experience. (http://organics.tennessee.edu/)

ReVOLve: ReVOLve was a project designed and carried out by group of Venture LLC business students working with UT Recycling and the Office of Sustainability in Spring 2014. The group wanted to reduce the waste produced by University of Tennessee students during the end-of-year move-out, raise awareness about re-using items, and the usefulness of items that end up in landfills. Money raised from the ReVOLve-In sale goes towards mini grants that will be based out of the Center for Leadership & Service to fund sustainability focused service learning projects. Bike Shop: The UT Outdoor Program hosts the Bike Shop, an on-campus workshop were students, faculty and staff can fix their bikes. Students willing to work on their own bikes can do so for free using the tools at the shop, or they can bring their bikes by to learn how to fix them. Students may also drop off their bikes to be fixed by student mechanics for a fee of $10/hour, plus the cost of parts. The shop also sells individual parts. http://recsports.utk.edu/outdoor-program/bike-shop-rentals/

The Student Environmental Initiatives fee, or green fee, is a student facilities fee that aims to raise funding for green power and campus sustainability initiatives. The green fee was started in 2005 by student vote during SGA elections, and consists of a $10/$35 fee per semester for in-state/out-of-state students. The Green Revolving Fund within the Green Fee provides money to be invested in sustainability initiatives on campus. These funds are administered by the Student Environmental Initiatives Committee, which is made up of students, faculty and staff. Previous projects funded by the Green Revolving Fund have included green power purchases and SMC lighting system upgrade.

The Howard Baker Center annually produces the Energy & Environmental Forum which consists of four to six speakers each semester from fields such as ecology, economics, urban planning, law, atmospheric chemistry and sociology to present on occasional Thursdays from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium. http://bakercenter.utk.edu/energy-environment/ Each year during Earth Month the Office of Sustainability hosts a series of speakers covering a wide range of sustainability topics. Examples of talks and panel discussions from the past few years include: "Faith and the Environment", "East Tennessee Clean Fuels", and "Non-anthropocentric Environmental Ethics". http://www.utk.edu/events/?com=detail&eID=50927

As part of of the Earth Month programming in April 2014, Composer John Luther Adams was invited to UT. Adams is Pulitzer Prize winning composer and a lifelong environmentalist who draws inspiration for his music from the natural world. While in Knoxville, he gave a formal lecture at UT about how his environmentalism has shaped his compositions, as well as performing Inuksuit, an outdoor percussion piece, at a local nature center. His visit was sponsored, in part, by the UT Green Fee and UT Office of Sustainability.

The University of Tennessee Outdoor Program (UTOP) seeks to provide the campus community with outdoor recreation opportunities. UTOP programs emphasize environmental stewardship, including Leave No Trace principles. While UTOP is not student governed, students are given the opportunity to lead some programs and trips.

Each year a book is chosen for first-year students to read before arriving on campus. Other members of the UTK community are encouraged to read the book and attend these events as well. Over the summer of 2013 the book chosen for this series was Eaarth by Bill McKibben, with the intention of engaging entering students and the campus in discussions about environmental issues. In August, Bill McKibben visited to speak to the first years, members of the university and Knoxville communities about the book and related sustainability issues.

Several student sustainability groups on campus (Eco-vols, S.P.E.A.K., Project V.E.G.G.I.E., and the Green House) offer sustainability programs or workshops throughout the year to teach sustainability life skills, such as gardening skills or zero-waste techniques. Additionally, the bike shop offers lessons in bicycle maintenance during their hours of operation throughout the school year.

Both the Office of Sustainability and the Recycling Office offer student internships throughout the school year as well as over the summer. These internships afford students the opportunity gain experience with sustainability related work through projects such as: collecting data and creating a map of waste disposal bins around campus, managing the campus recycling warehouse, graphic design for recycling initiatives, and website design.

The Green House is a living and learning community dedicated to sustainability in which students live, learn, and serve green on campus and in the Knoxville community. This community offers first year students an opportunity to incorporate sustainable practices and principles into their daily lives while living on a college campus. During their time in the Green House, they will participate in exclusive outdoor events and networking opportunities, take environmentally focused classes with fellow LLC members, and volunteer on and off campus with organizations like UT Recycling and Beardsley farm.