This week, the Mississippi State University Students for a Sustainable Campus (SSC) club is hosting their annual week of sustainability events known as “Green Week.”
SSC President Claire Green, a senior biochemistry major, said that the SSC is teaming up with various campus departments and organizations to host several sustainability-focused events on the MSU Drill Field.
These events include tabling with the Office of Sustainability on October 15, a DIY tote bag table with Fashion House today, a textile drive with the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) on Thursday and a movie night with the MSU Fisheries Club on Thursday night.
“So it’s really just a week for us to kind of bring all those connections and also to just have a lot of exciting things to promote the environment on the drill field for every single student to come by and see,” Green said.
SSC service director Nyla Jones is leading the textile drive. Jones said that the SSC and NRHH will collect gently used textiles such as T-shirts and socks to create reusable, recycled, microwaveable heating pads to donate to the Okitbbeha County Humane Society.
Green said that OCHH will give their animals the donated heating pads after surgeries and when it gets cold. Green said this initiative will help the humane society save money while also helping the environment by using non-toxic materials.
Riley Howell, the SSC vice president and a senior fashion design and merchandising major, said she wants to collaborate with other student organizations to reach a wider audience and teach them to become more sustainable.
“I really want to make a community based around being more sustainable,” Howell said. “There’s various different clubs that can run more sustainability.”
Howell has been an SSC member since her freshman year. During that time, she said, she has seen the organization raise awareness for everyone, not just MSU students.
“I’ve seen a lot of older people, for example, who, you know, don’t know much about sustainability,” Howell said, “but whenever you explain it like it will affect their grandkids, it opens their eyes.”
This year, the SSC is also hosting their gameday recycling event, Cowbell Cleanup, again. Green said that for five MSU football games at Davis Wade Stadium this semester, Mississippi State Athletics has given the SSC 15 free tickets in exchange for post-game recycling. After the games, 15 SSC members spend 30 minutes to an hour collecting recyclables in the stadium. The SSC’s next Cowbell Cleanup will be at the MSU vs Texas A&M football game on October 19.
Jones, a junior natural resources and environmental conservation major, said that she looks forward to the Cowbell Cleanup events because they allow her to connect with others and communicate the club’s sustainability message to new people.
“I really do enjoy it,” Jones said. “I get to talk to people who are interested in sustainability, and it’s also just like a fun thing to do with other people, meet new people and it just makes you feel better about yourself and really about, like, contributing to the overall sustainability of the campus.”
One of the SSC’s future goals is to lead Starkville toward becoming an official Bee City USA. According to Green, to become an official Bee City USA, Starkville’s government would have to appoint a certain number of officials to a committee to sponsor the initiative and commit to starting plants that are good for native bees.
MSU professor of landscape architecture Bob Brzuszek spoke about the potential project at an SSC meeting last Tuesday. Brzuszek said that native bees are already being considered in one project he is working on for Starkville’s Cornerstone Sports Complex. He said that they plan to plant native Starkville plants in the retention pods at the complex, which will, in turn, benefit the local bees.
Green said she had already talked to Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill and that Spruill supported the SSC’s Bee City USA initiatives.
SSC outreach coordinator Charlie Germany, a sophomore forestry major, said that she is excited to start working on projects to attract native bees.
“Having like a bee city and to really get back into doing our pollinator garden is so, so cool,” Germany said.
