Student Senate unanimously passed legislation in support of thenew student publication Hill Topics and the SMU Lacrosse clubduring meeting yesterday. Senate approved $3,315 to fund HillTopics and $1,290 for financial support of the SMU Lacrosseteam.
Shortly thereafter the finance committee denied theenvironmental committee’s $20 request for the”Single-Stream Recycling Program.” However, theappropriations committee recommended funding an $84 request fromthe environmental committee for labels, Velcro and glue.
Ed Board commends Student Senate for approving funding for HillTopics and the SMU Lacrosse team. Both organizations are unique invarious ways and will contribute to the university as a whole.
Unfortunately, only the Senate appropriations committee saw thewisdom in supporting the “Single-Stream RecyclingProgram.” Surely, $20 could have been made available to theenvironmental committee in some way. Do the members of the financecommittee only carry singles? Is it possible the finance committeecould not see the benefits associated with funding theenvironmental committee 20 bucks?
But Ed Board asks its readers to do a little math. Take thenumber of issues planned for Hill Topica, 26, multiply it by thenumber of pages, two (four faces front and back), and multiply thatby the number of copies to be produced during each printing, 1,000.That’s 52,000 sheets of paper that will be read by studentsall over campus. That’s also 52,000 sheets of paper that willbe thrown away, left in classrooms and littered across campus.
Recycling is of vital importance, not only to this campus, butto our nation and the world. Senate agreed to fund 52,000 sheets ofpaper but the finance committee has repeatedly denied theenvironmental committee a way to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Students continually leave sections of The Daily Campusscattered across the floors of lecture halls and classrooms. Andnot just The Daily Campus. It’s old tests, classnotes, soda cans and plastic bottles. Ed Board thinks there has tobe a way to recycle all this excess trash generated by more than10,000 students.
The environmental committee has made a valiant effort toinitiate programs to encourage recycling around campus, from TheBoulevard to the law quad. Ed Board urges all senators to thinklong and hard about the upcoming legislation for next week’sSenate meeting. On the floor, in old business, is a bill supportingyet another program created by the environmental committee. EdBoard urges the Senate to give unanimous support to this bill,despite the short-sighted recommendations of the financecommittee.
