It's not every day that students ask to pay more for their education, but that's just what our undergraduates have done in an effort to offset the cost of their education to the environment.

A student-proposed "clean energy fee," which could lighten the university's environmental footprint, was approved by the Tennessee Board of Regents at its summer quarterly meeting June 29-30. The fee, for students at both TTU and MTSU, is the only new fee at TTU approved by the board for the 2006-07 year.

Biology senior Tyler Pannell

"The passage of this clean energy fee is a momentous event in TTU’s history," says Tyler Pannell, co-chairperson of TTU's Student Environmental Action Coalition. Last year, SEAC sponsored an SGA bill on the clean energy fee and also successfully campaigned for the fee referendum during our October Homecoming election.

"People in America really need to wake up – global climate change is real – and the longer we wait to do something about it, the more dire the consequences will be for young people like myself, not to mention unborn children and grandchildren," says Pannell. "In a very real way, our school community has acknowledged that there is a better alternative — and not just for us, but for all future generations. This is a positive first step for our university, and the first step is always the most important."

GOING GREEN AT TTU In 2005, TTU formed the Environmental Management System Committee, whose work will help guide the university in its efforts to be a good steward of our land, air and water. The committee conducted a campus-wide survey last fall to gauge campus interest in environmental issues, as well as to gain feedback on an environmental management policy statement for TTU. Survey respondents overwhelmingly agreed with the need for an environmental management system at TTU and more efforts leading to the conservation of our natural resources. See the next Tech Times for survey results.

The TBR agreed to a proposal from both TTU students and their peers at MTSU to levy an $8 fee per semester to help decrease the campuses' reliance on non-renewable energy sources. That proposal was based on student referendums at both schools that called for clean energy initiatives that would be funded by a mandatory student fee.

In lobbying the TBR for the fee, student environmentalists recommended that a percentage go toward participation in the Tennessee Valley Authority's "Green Power Switch," which pays the higher costs of producing electricity from cleaner, greener sources like wind, solar power and methane gas.

"At the TBR meeting on June 30, the staff recommended and the board approved the fee for one year," says Larry Wheaton, TTU Facilities engineer. "During that time, a broad-based task force from throughout the TBR, including faculty and student representation, will study the Green Power Switch and other environmental issues related to campus facilities."

The TBR is in the process of forming that task force. TTU Provost Marvin Barker says our administration will be asking a campus committee to look at the best possible uses of the fee income as well. That committee will also represent all campus constituencies, including students.

TVA's Green Power Switch allows customers to purchase blocks of electricity produced entirely by wind power farms in East Tennessee, solar generation sites located throughout the Southeast or methane gas producers in Memphis. Power generated by these alternative sources of energy is more expensive, and TVA passes that expense along to its customers.

"Green power costs more money, but it's clean energy and a step in the right direction," says Wheaton. "I think a lot of people feel like it's too big a problem and that there's nothing they can do. But these students have taken a really dramatic step. We all have a responsibility to the environment."

On our campus alone, the new student fee could raise more than $100,000 annually.

In collaboration with MTSU students, SEAC members have a formed an alliance called Tennessee Alumni and Students for Sustainable Campuses. The purpose of TASSC, says Pannell, is to promote all aspects of sustainability throughout Tennessee's institutions of higher education, where similar movements to recommend clean energy fees are underway. Students at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville successfully lobbied for the fee last year.