Oklahoma State students visit campus for sustainability lesson

The University had visitors on Friday. They ate lunch on Franklin Street, wandered through a residence hall and took a campus tour.

But instead of displaying the usual undergraduate experience, UNC showed off its greener side.

Students from Oklahoma State University toured UNC on Friday to examine the University’s success at creating a sustainable campus and look for ways to bring these initiatives back to their own campus.

The tour was organized by student government senior adviser Elinor Benami, who knew the representatives from Oklahoma would be interested in pursuing a relationship with UNC.

Student Body President Jasmin Jones led Clint Merritt, student body president of Oklahoma State University, and Jesi Lay, their student sustainability executive, on a tour of campus.

“I was very happy about how UNC is looked at as a flagship around the nation with leading sustainability,” Jones said about the tour.

Merritt said he was looking for any suggestions on how to improve sustainability efforts at his university.

“Oklahoma is pretty much at ground zero,” Merritt said. “Most people don’t really know what sustainability means.”

Jones led Merritt and Lay to see Rams Head Dining Hall, Morrison Residence Hall and the FedEx Global Education Center, all of which are structures the University has renovated or built to reflect modern environmental technology.

Lay said she and Merritt have a lot of work to do as far as improving the sustainability practices on Oklahoma’s campus, and she wanted to learn as much as she could from UNC.

Jones discussed Rams Head’s practice of composting, or recycling food remains in the cafeteria, to be used in natural fertilizer.

Merritt and Lay also went on a tour of Morrison, led by Josh Alexander, the Morrison community director, and Adam Meyer and Chris Nickell, co-coordinators for the Sustainability Living Learning Community.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.