The Mississippi State University Students for a Sustainable Campus organization has planned a climate march through Starkville Oct. 22 at 10 a.m.
The group plans to march from Lee Hall on campus to Unity Park next to City Hall. The march is open to the public to join, and the club welcomes all additional participants.
This is the fourth time the group has held their annual march, and SSC President Emma Van Epps expects a larger turnout than ever before.
“We’re hoping for a big turnout, and we’re anticipating a lot more people. That was the goal with moving it to a Saturday, so people with work conflicts could be there,” said Van Epps, a junior MSU biomedical engineering major.
Not only has the climate march grown in popularity, but so has SSC as a whole. Recently, the student-led group merged with the Climate Reality Project, another student organization focused on research and development into and about the ongoing climate crisis.
While the SSP has handled the interpersonal side of relations, the CRP has delved into the research aspect at MSU.
Along with the planned march, the SSC and its constituents have created a list of demands that they would like to see implemented not only on MSU’s campus but in the greater Starkville area as well.
Chiefly among this list of demands is the rehabilitation and reforming of zoning and code enforcement in public housing areas, such as the Catherine Street Apartment complex that Heather Harrison for The Reflector reported on last year.
The organizations also hope to bring back curbside recycling, a service that the city of Starkville provided before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Grant Peterson is a junior wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture major at MSU, and he serves as the SSC’s campaign coordinator. He gave details about the curbside recycling demand.
“During COVID, (the city of Starkville) got rid of our curbside recycling program, and while they did start back recycling last year, you have to take the recycling yourself to one specific place,” Peterson said.
Peterson explained that the facility is only open during many citizens’ regular working hours, making it impossible for most people to bring their items to the facility.
As for initiatives that both the city and the university can partake in, the SSC lists a demand to expand the S.M.A.R.T. bus system’s reach and encourage residents of Starkville to use public transit instead of their personal vehicles.
The SSC maintains that their job is to work towards making MSU and Starkville a more hospitable area not only for its currents residents but for those residents’ children as well.
SSC posed for a picture at last year’s event.
