TECHNICIAN
Raleigh, North Carolina
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Student Legal Services provides consultation, litigation Underutilized service can help students with legal problems. Will Brooks Deputy News Editor
GRAPHIC BY JORDAN MOORE
Recyclable material wasted by students Students confuse recycling laws and opportunities on campus. Lauren Vanderveen Staff Writer
Despite ample opportunity, students continue to toss items that could be recycled. Recycling preserves our resources, reduces our landfills and saves energy. In fact, decreases in waste production have actually been attributed to recycling efforts statewide, according to a report by the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. So why are some N.C. State students still not recycling? A waste audit conducted last year showed 25 to 30 percent of landfill waste on campus, at certain residence halls, could still have been recycled. Elizabeth Sielatycki, a junior in social work, said she thinks there is a huge grey area in the system. “I think that it’s not all that easy for many students to distinguish what
they can recycle because it often varies between cities or states,” Sielatycki said. “So if a student has in their possession something other than an aluminum can or plastic bottle, they may just be uncertain in what to do with it.” State law has actually prohibited plastic bottles from being disposed of in landfills since 2009. Recycling these plastic bottles have not only proven to be beneficial to the earth but to the economy as well. Scott Mouw, section chief for the Environmental Assistance and Outreach division of the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, verified this. “We’ve done recycling job studies five times since 1995 and all of them have shown increases in jobs in recycling in North Carolina,” Mouw said. “The last study showed a 5 percent increase in recycling through the last recession, so recycling grew even despite the downturn in the economy. We also saw the number of recycling businesses increase during that time.” Analis Fulghum, education and out-
reach coordinator for the Waste Reduction and Reycling department, was excited about efforts made to promot the plastic bottle ban of 2009. “Our office, as well as NCDENR, coordinated a flash mob on the Brickyard to promote the plastic bottle ban [in 2009],” Fulghum said. Yet recycling bottles on campus is not readily enforced. “Since it is law, we can potentially get fined,” Fulghum said. “But there’s no way the Waste Reduction and Recycling office can enforce it. We rely on the community and putting labels on the bins on campus.” A study done by California State University said a major barrier for students not recycling is convenience, Fulghum added. A new website for the Waste Reduction and Recycling Office, will be launched in the upcoming weeks, according to Fulghum. It will include information on how to distinguish what is recyclable and where it can be recycled. Students now have the option to recycle items that were previously in
that grey area. “We will be promoting the new E-Recycling bins that have just been introduced to residence halls,” Fulghum said. “The ERecycling bins are for small electronics and computer peripherals.” Still, many people are just not aware of how recycling advances sustainability, Sielatycki added. “[Students] often aren’t informed about why exactly recycling is so important and the amount of energy it can save,” Sielatycki said. Recycling is actually a powerful way to protect the environment since it reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Recycled material saves on energy consumption, which also keeps costs in production down, Mouw said. More than 29 million tons of materials were combusted for energy recovery in 2010, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency. One student argues that the lack
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RECENT ACTIVITY Facebook went from being “private” to “public.”
Value of Facebook comes into question during public offering Facebook filed for an Initial Public Offering but its potential for success is hard to measure. Jennifer Jung Correspondent
When asked how Facebook has affected her as a college student, Catherine Ma, a junior in business marketing and finance, admitted that she, like many other college students, may have a slight addiction to the social networking site. “I spend way too much time on Facebook. It’s always open even if I’m not writing on people’s walls. It has to be on one of my tabs,” Ma said. Facebook has quickly become a necessity for many users like Ma. “I guess it’s easier to connect with classmates that you don’t necessarily
know as well,” Ma said. “You don’t know their number directly but you would get their Facebook account. It’s made people closer.” Facebook has become one of the most used social networking sites since it first began eight years ago. Students and faculty alike have stated how Facebook has helped people stay in touch by having the ability to communicate more easily on a regular basis. From the new features and applications that frequently appear on Facebook, users can now do much more than share photos and post comments; Facebook is now used as a source to find news and company updates. Due to its ongoing popularity, Facebook’s executives have decided to become a public company, having filed for a $5 billion initial public offering Feb. 1 where they made the decision to begin selling stocks to the public.
Analysts estimate the value to be between $75 billion and $100 billion on the day of its IPO. Despite what analysts say about their estimated value, skeptics have seen how other companies have done and many believe Facebook is a possible Internet bubble in the making, like Pandora and Groupon, which have gradually fallen in value. “I think there’s too much hype,” Ma said. “It’s going to be overpriced and they’re going to be just like Groupon. Personally I don’t think Facebook has any value. They only make their revenues from ads and certain apps. I don’t see how they can make much money from the certain investments. I think maybe in the first week when they first come out publicly everyone would be like ‘oh my gosh, so cool’ but I feel the price will fall down in a couple of days.”
insidetechnician
OTHER PERFORMANCES DURING AN IPO: Zynga Inc. Pricing: $10 per share First-day close: $9.50 Jive Software Inc. Pricing: $12 per share First-day close: $15.05 Angie’s List Inc. Pricing: $13 per share First-day close: $16.26 SOURCE: CSMONITOR.COM
Ed Weems, professor of marketing, shared his view by giving a comparison of Facebook to a
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Student Legal Services, a law firm that has been on campus for 25 years, seeks to help students resolve their legal issues. Pamarah Gerace, director of Student Legal Services, said 2,000 students typically use their services each year, although by contract, the attorneys cannot go to criminal court for students. “Basically, we are the law service on campus for the students, so that if they have any legal issues or questions, they come to us so that they won’t have to worry about hiring a private attorney. They can just worry about going to school,” Gerace said. Gerace said approximately 30 percent of students use the service to settle disputes with tenants, which makes land disputes their most frequent cases. However, there are provisions to the service. By contract, cases between more than one student, the University or the state, cannot be covered by the service. “We’re a general practice law firm, which means that we basically cover anything that the students come in with, but in court we will only deal with civil matters,” Gerace said. Gerace said the civil matters the service litigates with often range from landlord disputes, contract upkeep, wills and even name changes. Jesse Watson, administrative assistant for Student Legal Services, said he would like to see more students use the service, as anyone with legal questions could benefit from it. “We will consult on pretty much everything,” Watson said. Although the service’s attorneys cannot represent on criminal matters, they are able to consult students thoroughly. “We don’t represent on criminal matters like if you got a drinking ticket, or if you got a traffic citation, but we deal with them regularly and we will consult students on them,” Watson said. “We usually get students to the point where they won’t need to hire another attorney.” Considering the price of a lawyer out of pocket, the services come at a fairly small fee for students who take advantage of the service, which is covered by $11 of tuition. “Basically it is like having a [general practice] law firm at your disposal,” Watson said. “It is actually a really great service, because normally lawyers will charge you for everything.” Watson said the service is completely confidential, even when students are advised on the Student Code of Conduct hearings and cases with the University. “We don’t tell code of student conduct anything, we won’t tell the University anything and we won’t tell your parents anything,” Watson said. “We are completely confidential.” Attorney Michael Avery for Student Legal Services said before students get in legal trouble, they should attempt to follow a few simple principles. “Any time an officer says ‘can I,’ you can typically say no,” Avery said. “All you have to say is ‘I hereby revoke my consent,’ and the officer has to leave.” Although sure not to promote illegal activity, Avery said it always helps to be polite to the police, but without a warrant, they need consent to search
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