As supporters of The Green Initiative Fund, we would like to address some statements made in the editorial published in Friday’s Daily Bruin, titled “Green initiative’s logistics are impractical” (May 2).
While we respect legitimate scrutiny of the initiative, we feel that the editorial board failed to adequately research its formal guidelines. The editorial published reflected a lack of attention to its core tenets.
The editorial’s preface states that UCLA Facilities Management takes care of such tasks as changing light bulbs, mentioning that instead of giving power to students to implement projects, more money should be given to those “with true ability and oversight to put major projects into effect.”
The message that these statements belie is one that gives little credibility to students as innovative, informed and able members of the UCLA community. This is both insulting and demeaning to an undergraduate student body that has been the driving force behind countless highly successful initiatives in Bruin history. UCLA’s 800 student organizations, as well as the Undergraduate Students Association Council and the Daily Bruin, are all testaments to the success of student-initiated projects.
To encourage a more top-down approach to environmental issues on campus, as The Bruin did, shows a lack of faith and trust in the student body.
Further, the article does not accurately portray the limitless scope of projects that the initiative could fund. The impracticality of an organic garden project is mentioned, but the initiative does not pre-allocate funds, and these projects would not necessarily be a part of UCLA’s green-initiative endeavors.
The Grant-making Committee will fund the most effective and practical projects. The initiative’s guidelines stipulate that projects must improve UCLA’s environmental impact, allowing for great variance in potential project topics.
The students who wrote the referendum, as well as the councilmembers who approved it, feel confident that the project’s given funds will reflect UCLA’s prestige.
While the administration, including Facilities Management, is one means of reducing UCLA’s environmental impact, students deserve the opportunity and can be trusted to contribute to this common goal. With the upcoming budget cuts, the administration will most likely not be able to allocate as much money and time to environmental concerns as they do now.
Thus we, the students, need to take the initiative to make our improvements. Why should we just sit back and hope the administration will be able to tackle these issues alone? We should take hold of our university and make it what we want it to be.
All of us have benefited from the opportunities that UCLA affords, and we all have the responsibility of ensuring that UCLA is a sustainable campus that can continue providing these benefits for generations to come.
We are disappointed in the editorial board’s oversight of the initiative’s policy and purpose, and we hope students take time to research what The Green Initiative Fund is about. The formal guidelines are available on our Web site at www.tgifla.org.
Rose is the Bruins United campaign manager and the current president of USAC. Cendana is the Students First! campaign manager.