Indiana Statesman For ISU students. About ISU students. By ISU students.
Indiana Statesman
Friday, April 20, 2018
@ISUstatesman
isustatesman
Volume 125, Issue 75
Earth Day at ISU Alexandria Truby Reporter To celebrate Earth Day as a community, ISU held its annual celebration on the quads Wednesday April 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Earth Day is important to remind us of the world we live in. It is a day to remind us of the world that we inhabit and the world that provides for us all of which we have to work with. It is a day that reminds us that we have an effect on our world and we can be helpful and detrimental to Earth as a planet. We should all be well aware of this every day,” sophomore Trey Hallet said. From 9 to 11 a.m. a Tobacco Free Blue cigarette pickup was held. “We say that ISU is a tobacco free campus but there is an exception in that policy that says with exception, you can use tobacco products in designated areas. However, there are issues with compliance and enforcement, especially between res halls and academic buildings,” Katie Lugar, President of Tobacco Free Blue, said. Three people stayed out for an hour and a half and collected 2,462 cigarette butts around the smoke shack near Holmstedt Hall and the library. One clean-up was held around homecoming where they collected around 4,600 cigarette butts. “We had our cigarette butt pickup this morning but it was really cold, which impacted our numbers quite a bit because we’ve usually had a few more people come and help. We wanted to address the environmental impact of tobacco use because cigarettes are the #1 most littered item in the world and they are not completely biodegradable because there is a little plastic piece in the filter that does not decompose. Also, all of the toxins seep into the environment whether that’s through the soil or it might get washed into water streams or into sewage systems and that’s going to impact our ecosystem. A lot of times, birds and small animals will take cigarettes and put them in their nests so it’s affecting wildlife. If you have children as wild as my niece and nephew, they are always on the ground picking stuff up, checking things out and I really don’t
Miguel Lewis | Indiana Statesman
Annual Earth Day celebration at ISU took place on Wednesday, April 18 with over 50 vendors to inform students about sustainability. Sodexo also hosted a lunch picnic at the Quad.
EARTH DAY CONT. ON PAGE 5
President Curtis hosts ISU memorial service Patrick Chavis Reporter
Rus’self Butts | Indiana Statesman
The campaign was in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability led by Nicholas McCreary.
ISU, number one in pledge against plastic straws Rus’sel Butts Reporter ISU student Dakota Sims and Residential Life Assistant Director, Katherine Uttich have been leading a Pledge against Plastic Straws campaign at ISU. This campaign was done in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, led by Nicholas McCreary. The Simply Straws national organization is hosting a 2018 Campus. The campus that registers the most students over the entire month of April wins the competition and receives 100 glass straws from the national organization. ISU has recently passed the University of North Georgia to become number one in the nation in terms of pledges received. ISU has 242 completed pledges, and The University of North Georgia is close behind with 222 completed pledges.
The University that wins the competition will receive 100 straws from the simply straw organization with the words “Indiana State University” branded on the straws. “We are a service-oriented campus,” said Uttich. “It was really a word of mouth campaign that has led to us being competitive with other top Universities who have much larger student populations. Anyone with a name and an email address can represent ISU in this challenge, so I encourage people to ask their family and friends to get involved.” This campaign has stemmed from the harmful effects plastic straws have on the environment. “Plastic is not biodegradable and it can be left in an area for millions of years,” said Mc’Creary. “The small plastic items are a large issue because they can affect wildlife. Animals can mistake it
for food, and the plastic can destroy their digestive systems. It can also wreck habitats, which is why it is such an important ecological issue.” Sims is doing a project for his Environmental Science Class concerning plastic straws. He revealed some of the shocking statistics he learned in his research. According to Sims, “There are over 500 million straws produced in the United States every day. By 2030 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish in terms of weight. We are trying to produce no straws at all, and this is a step in that direction.” Those statistics do suggest that straws are unsustainable, but it is such an integral part of many American’s lives that we do not think about the impact they have on the environment.
PLASTIC CONT. ON PAGE 5
The President’s office hosted the Annual ISU Memorial Service in the Dede 1 auditorium, on Wednesday afternoon. The event started at 1 p.m. and received a showing from many former and current ISU faculty members, as well as former students. Teresa Exline, who works as the Chief of Staff in the President’s office and was the main coordinator for the event, discussed the event’s significance prior to its commencement. “We do the ISU Memorial service once a year to honor students, staff, and former faculty members who have passed by paying respect to them and their contributions to ISU as a whole,” said Exline. “This service has been held for the past ten years at ISU and thankfully no students will be honored this year, contrary to years past,” Exline said. “It’s always very sad to hear when young people pass before their time, but ISU has fortunately been spared from young deaths this year.” Although there were no students on the list of people to be honored at the service, there were about 47 faculty and former faculty who had passed away and would be receiving recognition. The service itself was short and sweet lasting about thirty minutes. The ISU music department provided music for the service.
To officially kick off the service, President Deborah Curtis addressed the audience and explained the order of events that would occur. Curtis started off by reading the names of all the people being honored and quickly explained the position that they held while they were at ISU. Most of the names that were being named off were former faculty, but some of the names were those of faculty who lost their lives while still working at ISU. After Curtis was done reading off the names, she invited everyone to join in on a moment of silence to honor the deceased. This gave people some time to quietly ponder any thoughts that they had regarding how they felt at that point in time. After a moment of silence, music began to play as President Curtis began to wrap up the service. Following the playing of the final song of the afternoon, which was referred to as “a song without words” attendants were encouraged to stay around and enjoy light refreshments in the room next door. This was a time for grieving loved ones to reminisce about the great times that they had spent with the deceased and to receive closure from their passing. After the memorial service was over, President Curtis shared her thoughts about the whole experience. “This is my first time
Teresa Exline
presiding over ISU’s annual memorial service, but having worked in higher education for the past thirty years I have presided over many similar memorial services at different institutions,” Curtis said. Curtis explained that, saying the names of the former members of the ISU community who have passed is very important to honor their role on campus and does them a great justice. Curtis also commented on the fact that no students were mentioned in the service. “It’s unusual for an institution our size to not have any students mentioned in the memorial, but at the same time it is a blessing,” said Curtis. The service held a strong impact for those in attendance who personally knew any individuals that were mentioned during the service. “This event really sends the message that the University says thank you to those who have passed and their contributions to the University, and also for their loved ones to find closure,” Curtis said.