The G.R.E.E.N. Club-Go Recycle; End Environmental Neglect-encourages Nicholls students to get involved in the effort to recycle and conserve energy, water and other resources on campus. The organization, which was established at the University in the fall of 2007, has 200 registered members and 40 active members.
Alexandra Morris, family and consumer sciences senior from Lockport, founded the club with the support of Andrew Simoncelli, assistant professor of mass communication.
Morris said that Simoncelli, who is also the G.R.E.E.N. Club’s adviser, recruited her to help form the club because she and a friend had previously formed a similar club at their high school. Since the creation of the G.R.E.E.N. Club, Morris has assumed the role of president. She holds weekly meetings for the group, organizes events and activities and participates in the club’s efforts on campus.
“The club is important because it is a vehicle by which environmental issues are brought to the conscience of the Nicholls community and the local area,” Morris said.
The club holds awareness events on campus through the celebrations of America Recycles Day, Arbor Day and Earth Day. The club plants a tree on Arbor Day and holds fundraisers and raffles to support the club’s efforts and to cover the expense of recycling. In addition, the club also takes environmental field trips to film festivals, recycling centers and other green events.
The club has three recycling dumpsters on campus that accept white paper and newspaper. The dumpsters are provided by SP Recycling, a company out of New Orleans, free of charge. The University receives $15 for every ton of paper it recycles. Morris said the money collected by the University from this effort is put towards green efforts on campus. One of the recycling dumpsters is located near the tennis courts, and the other two are on Colonel Drive, between Student Publications and Printing and the South Louisiana Economic Council building. Everyone is welcome to put their paper in the dumpsters. Morris welcomes all students to join the club, which she said is making a difference everyday.
“Recycling and environmental efforts are only made possible by the work of passionate people,” Morris said. “G.R.E.E.N. gives Nicholls students the ability to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Jena McCoy, English-creative writing junior from Houma, said that when she started at Nicholls in 2007, the G.R.E.E.N. Club was the first organization she joined.
“I have been a self-designated environmentalist for several years. I was made fun of for it in high school because many of my peers linked it with me being liberal,” McCoy said. “It was so great to find people who agreed with me for once, and who really took the state of the planet seriously.”
The G.R.E.E.N. Club participants would like to see its membership and awareness grow. Members would also like to see its recycling efforts expand.
“I would like for the club to participate in the local efforts, like beach sweeps and marsh plantings,” Morris said.
Members of the club welcome all students to join in the effort to make the University more Earth-friendly and green.
“It is absolutely necessary because we, as humans, hold the possibility to change the course of negative events we’ve set in motion. I think it is our responsibility, since we created the problem, to try and solve it,” McCoy said.
Weekly meetings of the G.R.E.E.N. Club are held Wednesdays at 2 p.m. for the duration of the Spring 2010 semester. While the club has dues of $5, there are no mandatory attendance policies.
