Universities across the nation are continuously putting more attention into making their campuses and facilities environmentally friendly.
Numair Latif, a graduate student studying architecture & planning, conducted a survey this semester in hopes of getting students' opinions on how to make UNM's campus more involved in that movement.
Latif is a part of the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) and was chair of the Sustainability Committee until last month. In an effort to recruit new members for the committee, he said he passed out pamphlets to students along with some questions for them to answer.
“In order to recruit volunteers to serve on the Sustainability Committee, I also continued to seek campus greening ideas from individual students in subsequent weeks,” he said.
Latif said that the survey was informal and "not statistically significant,” but new ideas were introduced to him that he never thought of himself.
The majority of people who took the survey were graduate students, but there were others too.
“Although there were mostly graduate students, some of the gatherings during fall orientation were mixed,” Latif said. “However, most of the students were either graduate or those seeking graduate certificates.”
The survey Latif conducted wasn't tied to any organization, but he did note that there were programs on campus that would benefit from the surveys.
“There is a Sustainability Studies program on campus, and a green fund with limited amounts of study,” Latif said.
UNM has made steady improvements over the years by adding hand-dryers in place of paper towels, and also the addition of water fountains specifically made for water bottles, to reduce the use of plastic. However, Latif said more can be done.
“UNM should go green not only on the main campus, but also on other campuses, especially if there are renovations to be made, or new building or infrastructure construction projects to be made,” Latif said.
Latif said the University would benefit from thinking greener by saving more green – money, that is. For example, switching to shielded LED lights or adding low-flush toilets and faucets would go a long way as far as cutting unnecessary costs, he said.
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The University has already taken initiatives in thinking environmentally-friendly, specifically in going along with an increasingly popular trend.
“In terms of active solar, UNM installed Photovoltaics on top of the new parking structure on Lomas across from the hospital,” Latif said. “However, according to some students, more could be done.”
Matthew Narvaiz is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @RealMattNarvaiz.
