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MSU celebrated national Campus Sustainability Day on Wednesday

October 23, 2014

MSU celebrates Campus Sustainability Day by promoting environmental activities for students to engage in, with officials encouraging students to make simple, green changes in their everyday lives.

A national event occurring once a year, Campus Sustainability Day is hosted by MSU Campus Sustainability and the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment. The event included games, free food and giveaways at Bailey Hall.

Assistant director of MSU Campus Sustainability Ann Erhardt mentioned the Spartan Eco Challenge, a challenge which concluded at the event.

“It started back in September and each week had a different theme — waste production, energy, food sustainability and transportation,” Erhardt said. “Every week there were five challenges for students to participate in.”

The Spartan Eco Challenge provided students opportunities to engage in several activities each week. Students posted a picture of themselves based on the activity through the Be Spartan Green Facebook or Twitter page.

Promoted through social media, students signed up via email and competed for weekly prizes. Also, the grand prize winners of two brand new bikes from the MSU Bikes Service Center were announced at the event.

“We did a lot of tours during the Eco Challenge for students to tour the Student Organic Farm, the Bailey Hoop House and the Power Plant, which shows how energy is generated on campus,” said project coordinator for MSU Campus Sustainability Sean Barton. “So there (were) a fair amount of things through the Student Eco Challenge.”

Halfway through the event, two grand prize winners were announced. Education sophomore Lindsey Montgomery and chemical engineering junior Achyut Srinivasa were the two Eco Challenge winners.

A free bike maintenance clinic was involved as one of the other stations at the MSU Campus Sustainability event students toured and participated in.

MSU Bikes Service Center Tim Potter mentioned how students should take advantage of the free bike maintenance clinic because it makes a huge difference in a student’s health.

“It can be quite a big difference, for example, with a seat being too low it can lead to permanent knee damage,” Potter said. “And flat tires can really slow you down and eventually students will get a flat that should have been checked out.”

Environmental engineering sophomore Marina Ostaszewski said the free bike clinic was a pleasant surprise.

“I think it’s very important to get your bike checked out because it’s kind of like a vehicle in its own sense,” Ostaszewski said. “It’s always good to make sure your bike is in good working order.”

Ultimately, the sustainability organization’s goal was for students to take away information that can contribute to their lives.

“We are trying to bring awareness to the broader sustainability efforts on campus,” Erhardt said. “This event was intended to draw students to the conversation on what MSU does with sustainability, and trying to attract students who don’t normally know about it.”

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