W27 Newspaper - March 2010

W27

VO L 42 I SSUE 78 FEB 2010

OFFICIAL FIT NEWSPAPER THE FULL STORY ON FIT’S INVOLVEMENT WITH CGI U (AND WHAT THAT STANDS FOR) DIARY OF A SERIAL NON-ENVIRONMENTALIST

WHAT’S UP WITH THE COLD WEATHER DOWN SOUTH? RECYCLING AT FIT: THE INSIDE SCOOP

The Sustainable Issue: It’s Not Easy Being Green

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Heather Alina Viggiani Editor-in-Chief

Patrick Greene Deputy Editor

Emma Brooke Managing Editor

Kara Lewis Publicity and Recruitment

Jennifer Naegeli Web Editor

Kara Lewis Jessica Samakow Kevia Wright Senior Section Editors

Zhang Qingyun Art Director

Cristina Vaccacio Graphic and Print Production Consultant

Lauren Rothbart Advertising Manager

Rachel Gulmi Advertising Assitant

John Simone Editorial Faculty Advisor

Albert Romano Advertising Faculty Advisor

Contributing Writers Emma Brooke Veronica Heras Moya Hewitt Crissie Fuller Patrick Greene Roxy Kirshenbaum Kara Lewis Dorelle McPherson Jessica Samakow Taisa Veras

Illustrators Charles George Illustrations Director

Jaclyn Schauer Janine Tondu Jonathan Guzi Kara Zisa

Want to be a published writer? Write for your school! Contact us at: w27newspaper@gmail.com W27 is the student newspaper of the State University of New York: Fashion Institute of Technology, published under the auspices of the FIT Student Association. We invite letters to the editors, which must be signed and typed. Names will gladly be withheld upon request. Letters to W27 or its editors are assumed to be intended for publication in whole or in part, and therefore may be used for such purposes.

Opinions expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect those of the FIT Editorial Board.

Welcome Back to School Readers!

Welcome to my first issue as Editor-in-Chief. I just wanted to take a moment to thank Joe Zee for paving a path for W27 ever since his time at the top of masthead in ‘91. I had the opportunity to work side-by-side with him during my 6-month internship at ELLE magazine where he is the Creative Director. It was always inspiring to know that he was once in the position that I am in now. With all the success and fame he has garnered since his time at FIT, I have some pretty big (very fashionable) shoes to fill.

Green. That’s the last time you will see that word written by a W27 staff member in this, our first Eco-Friendly-focused issue. “That’s absurd,” you might be muttering. The reason is so that the message behind the February 2010 Issue means something more than a celebrity-associated trend.

So that recycling isn’t looked at as just a law to abide (after all, it is illegal to avoid recycling in New York State). Being “green” isn’t a lifestyle choice like being a vegetarian, or deciding to be a Polar Bear (did you see those crazies in nearfreezing water on New Year’s Day?), or proclaiming oneself as part of the hipster population.

Being friendly to the planet is a civic duty that we all must take very seriously.

you alone cannot make the difference we need to move towards a healthier home, lose it.

Just a few weeks ago, we were reminded how fragile our physical surroundings truly are during the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. Though the 7.0 quake was a natural disaster, I couldn’t help but relate it to the importance of respecting our planet--without it, everything else is utterly irrelevant. While we lack the power to alter the course of a natural disaster, we do have the ability practice prevention in cases of man-made global damage. And if you have the attitude that just

If you take anything from the next 10 pages, let it be this: Mother Nature can be quite the bitch when she isn’t happy.

President Brown understands the urgent attention that each one of us must pay towards better treatment of our environment, which is why she chose “Sustainability” as a platform for our participation in the Clinton Global Initiative. Our contributors have been hard at work to respond to this call-to-action. Did Emma Brooke change her behavior after her Earth-Interaction Diary on page 8? What did Kara Lewis find out about FIT’s recycling behavior? Read on to find out as well as to learn about how industry members, students and even a famous director are contributing towards fighting the deterioration of our planet.

All My Best,

FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

The new senior staff of W27 is pledging to change their interaction with the earth for the better in 2010. Their “New Year’s Ecolutions,” if you will.

“I am going to be printed on recycled paper from this issue on.”

-The newspaper itself “I am going to walk the 2 extra feet it takes to get to the recycling bin with my water bottles. Scratch that, I am never going to use water bottles--Where’s my Sigg?”

-Heather Viggiani, EIC “To turn off the lights at home when I’m not in the room. This is something I NEVER do, so it will definitely be a challenge for me.

-Jessica Samakow, Senior Editor, FIT Speaks “My ecolution for 2010 is all about water conservation. With that in mind I plan on investing in one of those new “two-flush” toilets. Ya know, the ones that have one flusher for “number one” and another for “number two.” Don’t ask me what I’m going to do if number three or four comes along after a night of margaritas and Taco Bell.”

-Patrick Greene, Deputy Editor “I will bring my Lorenzo de Medici canvas tote to get groceries in Florence or go shopping... no more plastic bags for me!”

-Jennifer Naegeli, Web Editor “Gross as it may sound, to reduce the huge of toilet paper I use by a few less sheets.”

-Kara Lewis, Senior Editor, Outside the Block “My New Year’s Resolution is to buy a tumbler -preferably one with hello kitty, snoopy, or something nostalgic - so that I can still feed my caffeine addiction and save paper and Styrofoam cups as well!”

-Kevia Wright, Senior Editor, Club Love

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The Clinton Global Initiative University at a Glance Heather Viggiani

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t is safe to assume that most FIT students have heard about the Clinton Global Initiative.

Whether it was simply because they noted what Michelle Obama wore to the organization’s annual dinner here in New York City is debatable but surely most students know that President Clinton started a nonprofit organization to tackle global challenges. What might not be known is the college-targeted offshoot of CGI—the very organization that FIT is committing to be a more sustainable community to.

In 2007, just two years after President Clinton established the original CGI, Clinton Global Initiative University was born with the goal to create a “community of young leaders [that] doesn’t just discuss the world’s challenges--[but] that take real, concrete steps towards them,” according the organization’s website (http://www.cgiu.org).

Five focus areas are up for grabs for the nearly 200 representatives from 25 different countries that are wanting to take part: Education, Peace & Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, Public Health and Environment & Climate Change. The latter environmental cause was the one that resonated with Dr. Brown, FIT president when she attended the annual meeting last spring. “Though I cannot speak for her, I would assume that she choose sustainability because of the attention it has received by the media and the “Going Green” force that is sweeping our campus as well as NYC,” said student body president Wil Cope in an email message.

The impact that this organization can make is real.

Last year, the United Nations of the Dominican Republic worked with CGI U to make a commitment to improving the impoverished conditions of

Haiti, the nation in turmoil in the wake of the January earthquake. Perhaps the aftermath could have been alleviated had such an organization and initiative to improve living conditions there had been made even earlier.

The website is a great place to become inspired to take part in this school-wide promise to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Cope urges students: “Attend the Sustainability Conference later this semester to voice your thoughts and ideas about how to decrease FIT’s Carbon footprint.” He continued with his own personal initiative, “I also would like to ask students to take the time and recycle. Recycling is something I truly support, and making recycling a habit will have a major impact down the road.” And after all, isn’t that what CGI U is all about?

Avatar: Reflections on the Deeper Significance of James Cameron’s Spectacular Moya Hewitt

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t turns out that the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated directorial return of James Cameron isn’t just visual eye-candy Avatar has certainly changed the entire scope and perception of 3-D, which until now was no more stimulating than McDonald’s Happy Meal blue-and-red 3D toy glasses.

But when you experience the tangible projections of the human-like blue creatures and their phantasmagorical world, only then can you begin to grasp the unparalleled visual possibilities of the 3-D experience.

To be honest, I myself was skeptical about going to see a movie about blue creatures with cat-like facial features gallivanting through a magical forest. Above and beyond the evolutionary dynamics of 3-D that molded the film’s experience, was a metaphor and a theme, man versus nature. The portrait of man’s destructive, selfish habits and militant unwillingness to co-exist peacefully with other organisms was certainly not far from the truth, despite the film’s supernatural effects.

The deep communion the Na’vi (blue creatures) had with nature, which involved physically connecting to any tree or animal to experience the sublime-the joining of their minds with a positive flow of energy through all living things, allowed them to live in accord. Wouldn’t you like to be able to plug your tail into trees and animals to experience emotional con-

nection with them? Thought provoking, isn’t it?

The outcasts of this natural work of Pandora, were the ruthless and greedy humans eager to exploit valuable natural resources lying beneath the grounds of the Na’vi’s sacred abodes. But the Na’vi’s unwillingness to relocate led to lethal conflict between humans and the Na’vi.

The message of the film is how inhuman we human become by denying our connection to nature. Greed and materialism lead to mass destruction and that’s more than a metaphor, it’s reality. Unless we as a species temper the impulse to consume mindlessly, we will continue on a path of destruction that will doom our species and our planet. We must change our ways.

As Cameron put it to the UK Telegraph, “There’s a sense of entitlement – ‘We’re here, we’re big, we’ve got the guns, we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the brains, we therefore are entitled to every damn thing on this planet.’ That’s not how it works and we’re going to find out the hard way if we don’t wise up and start seeking a life that’s in balance with the natural cycles of life on earth.’’

Image from Flickr, Official Avatar Movie’s Photostream

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GLOBAL WARMING OR GLOBAL COOLING What’s up with the weather?

Veronica Heras

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n search of warm, sunny beaches and an escape from NYC’s frigid weather, Melissa went on her annual vacation to Miami Lakes, Florida.

When Minnie, also from NYC, got on a plane heading to Arlington, Texas, she expected to leave the 30 degree temperatures behind. No such luck.

What Melissa and Minnie found instead, was the sudden cold snap that gripped the Midwest and South in the first week of January. Meteorologists say the cold was due to the weak Arctic Oscillation, which caused the Arctic air from the North to move down South.

Melissa Adames, an AMC student said, “A cold day in Miami Lakes was maybe 60 degrees. Last year I was able to go to the pool and beach but this year I couldn’t.” January temperatures in Miami are usually in the upper 70’s but this year’s abnormally low temperatures plunged into the 30’s. On January 11th, USA Today reported 29 degrees in Orlando, 25 degrees in Tampa and 14 degrees in Tallahassee. In Alabama temperatures were in the teens.

January’s average mid-50 degree temperatures in Dallas were replaced by temperatures in the 20’s.

“There are days when it is just as cold as New York but there are also days when it feels like the summer, like this past Friday (January 22nd). It was so-oo-o nice.” said Minnie Sevikul, a fashion design student, after spending her win-

ter break in Arlington, Texas.

The cold snap did more than disappoint home-goers. During the winter months, Florida is the home of 75% of domestically grown fruits and vegetables. Some farmers tried to salvage their crops by running water on them, in an attempt to create an “ice shield” that is suppose to prevent them from freezing on the inside. The frigid temps threatened $300 million worth of crops, including Florida’s lucrative citrus industry.

In Palm Beach, the vegetable industry also suffered. David Sui, a Palm Beach County Extension Agent, estimates a 30-40 percent loss in sweet corn. The full extent of the damages won’t be known for weeks.

Florida’s wildlife suffered as well when the freezing temperatures proved to be lethal to sea turtles, manatees, fish and tree iguanas, which literally fell off trees frozen. People in the areas affected were not prepared for such weather either, and deaths were reported. Soon the question arose: What happened to Global Warming?

Scientists are claiming that this is only the beginning of a mini-Ice Age. Professor Mojib Latif, from Kiel University in Germany, and a key member of the UN’s climate research arm said that “changes in ocean currents known as the North Atlantic Oscillation can dominate man-made global warming for the next few decades.”

Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist with the United States National Snow and Ice Data Center disagrees. He claims that the cold snap is, “another sign of global warming” and “the effects of greenhouse gas levels rising.”

He also states that the cool weather, which changes on a day to day basis, says nothing about climate change, which is a long term trend or pattern in a region. In the last decade the climate has leaned towards warmer weather.

Since 1998 the eight warmest years have been recorded, 2005 being the warmest.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, over the past 200 years, greenhouse gases have increased significantly due to fossilburning fuels and deforestation. Since these gases prevent heat from escaping, the effect is a warmer climate. Although warmer days sound like a good thing, they aren’t. The climate directly impacts humans through events such as hurricanes, frequent heat waves, and floods, and indirectly through changes in our eco-system, water, air quality, agriculture and food supply.

Through simple changes in our lifestyle, people can reduce human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

So why not start with the FIT community following these simple steps!

• Recycle paper, beverage containers, batteries and electronic equipment. Reduce by using both

sides of the paper and don’t print unless you have to. Reuse by buying environmental friendly supplies.

• “Reducing, reusing, recycling” helps conserve energy and reduces pollution. Do we really want to NYC to be any more polluted?

• Look for ENERGY STAR qualified products. These include lighting, home electronics, heating, and cooling equipment and appliances. Not only do they save the planet but they also help save money. se public transportation. Accord• U ing to the Environmental Protection Agency, choosing public transportation over a car two times a week reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,600 pounds per year.

If a taxi is your choice of transportation, then try the new green taxis.

• Turn off and unplug appliances when not in use. That means turn off your computer, unplug your cell phone charger and turn off the light.

• A n environmentally friendly home is only the beginning. Eco-friendly fashion is next. Today there are ecofriendly clothes, accessories, shoes, and cosmetics. Try them!

The bottom line is, “the choices that we make today will affect tomorrow,” so be consciencious (or at least more aware of the effects of your choices as a consumer.)

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Designer Profile: Carolyn Rafaelian of Alex & Ani Taisa Veras on to learn about Carolyn Rafealian, the designer and founder of the eco-concious jewelry line Alex and Ani. When did you start designing jewelry?

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co-Friendly fashions have been ubiquitous among various fashion designers and brands in recent years due to the eco movement. The recycling of metals, plastic, paper and other materials has been widespread in the industry in the past few seasons. But what does it take to have a successful earth friendly line? President Bush’s daughter Laura obviously figured it out with her uber sucessful FEED bags and so did the designers of Loomstate, a Barney’s exclusive cotton collection. But what about jewelry? It seems that marrying the sustainable principle and on-trend design is the key. Read

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them. I also have a third daughter Alivia.

Do you and your daughters collaborate at all? Do they give you input during the design process?

My father opened our factory in 1966, so I literally grew up in the jewelry industry. I spent many summers helping my father and started to create my own pieces and design at a very early age. However, it wasn’t until my two daughters, Alex and Ani, were born when I decided I wanted to leave a legacy for them and branched off to start my own jewelry company. It was my destiny to become a jewelry designer.

My daughters absolutely LOVE the Alex and Ani jewelry. Ani will leave for school with a whole arm of bangles and return with only two. Her explanation?

“Mom, I had to give them to all the girls in school, they were begging me for them!” Alex and Ani especially love the expandable bangles because they can expand as they grow.

What inspires you?

I spend a great deal of time in Jamestown, Rhode Island, so I love to go to the RI beaches and “special spots” where I become inspired. Mother Nature is the most creative force that we were blessed with to experience everyday, anywhere--whether you’re sitting on a New York City rooftop or at the water’s edge.

The Atlantian symbol ring that I wear every day. The symbol was first introduced to me by my deal friend who is a Shaman and I knew right away that I needed to incorporate the symbol into my collection. This particular Atlantian is so powerful and I felt such a strong connection to it that the ring has become a piece of me.

What’s your creative process like?

What are the best sellers from your collection?

I am inspired by people, their unique energies, what makes them who they are and what is truly important to them. Jewelry has the means to empower and I am just a designer who helps facilitate one to their own greatness because the meaning behind many of the pieces I create should reflect the essence of the wearer.

Our Initial Bangles are a big hit and our single charm bangles have always done really well. I think that Alex and Ani fans love personalizing their bangle sets, and we’ve seen that trend take off recently. Anyone can personalize their own sets with our new “Custom Create” Virtual Bangle Bar on the Alex and Ani website.

How did you learn to make jewelry, did you study Jewelry Design or are you self-taught?

How do you choose the symbols that go on the charms?

My love of jewelry came from my mother--I was always playing in her many fun jewelry boxes. The desire to create jewelery came from being brought up in my father’s jewelry manufacturing factory. I learned everything just being around it my entire life Why did you choose to call your collection Alex and Ani?

I love personalizing my jewelry, so I came up with different charms so when girls wear my bangles, they feel connected to them spiritually. There are many charms from ones with the words Love and Peace to an Om symbol to Zodiac Signs, Birthstones or Initials. This way everyone that wears Alex and Ani can personalize their sets!

Alex and Ani are my first two daughter’s names. I called my jewelry collection Alex and Ani because in my mind I had made the two most beautiful things in the world so I wanted to name my company after

To read more about the ways in which Rafaelian uses recycled material and supports social consciousness by spreading her love of jewelery, visit the site at http://www.alexandani.com/

What’s your favorite piece from your collection?

The Clinton Global Initiative and the Fashion Industry Dorelle McPherson

ere’s some good news: Fashion has also joined the Clinton Global Initiative. CGI is making an influential and substantial impact with the support of fashion companies worldwide. The strongest initiatives made were by global apparel manufacturer Levi Strauss and Co. in the areas of HIV and AIDS and Fair Trade Certifications.

Another significant initiative has been committed to by the United Nations office on Drug Crimes on the prevention of human trafficking through fashion manufacturing and tailoring.

Levi Strauss and Co. began their initiatives in 2008 with the creation of LS&CO HIV/AIDS Treatment and Care program. Levi Strauss is taking AIDS-care a step further by offering expanded access to antiretroviral drugs, treatment and counseling to HIV/ AIDS patients. LS&CO has donated over $36 million to organizations that specialize in education on HIV/ AIDS and has targeted young people, women and factory workers in international apparel manufacturing.

LS&CO participates in World AIDS Day celebrated annually on December 1st and other educational

events. This added to the involvement and commitment level of LS&CO through volunteers, charity and philanthropy.

Levi Strausss continued commitment to CGI by partnering with Transfair USA, a partnership of many industries including US garment-industry companies and manufacturing facilities in Asia, Latin America and Africa. This partnership initiated the Fair Trade Certification of Garments. Any manufacturer who complies with the certification guidleines set up in US marketed areas of clothing, home goods and even food, will be rewarded with development funding for workers and increased quality of life for workers at their facilities. This commitment really targets conditions for workers and migrant laborers that live at the facilities. This commitment will touch the lives of laborers in India, Nicaragua, Philippians, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, to name a few.

The biggest initiative, which began in 2009 was Empowering Girls by Design, started by the United

Nations office on Drug Crimes. It’s mission is the prevention of human trafficking and the rehabilitation of girls forced into the sex trade through the teaching of garment manufacturing, tailoring and small business skills. This project will last until late 2011 and will focus on the international high trafficking countries like Cambodia, India, Thailand, India and Delhi. This commitment empowers young women to excel in fashion and manufacturing as a career, and to break the cycle of trafficking. Training programs by industry professionals help to promote entrepreneurship among young women.

As these programs and commitments succeed, we shall see more companies making a global impact on our world’s sustainability in power, poverty and humanity.

Creating a sustainable world through the fashion industry is more than just a trend to follow, it is a lasting endeavor that changes lives and, ultimately, the world.

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Recycling Sleuth: Separating Myth from Truth with FIT’s Current Program

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o be or not to be: that is the question.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet said it, FIT students say it when pondering FIT’s recycling policy or as some students assume- lack thereof. To uncover the deep dark truth as to what happens after we throw away the many useless handouts we got throughout the semester, some digging had to be done in order to find the difference between what we as students think is happening with the current recycling program compared to what actually happens beyond the green, blue and grey bins.

After waiting in line to get a new FIT ID during freshman orientation in the last week of January, because I left mine only god knows where, I spotted a fellow returning FIT student in the same boat as I. I approached Jordan Liv, a Fine Arts major at FIT, to collect his thoughts on FIT’s recycling program.

The first thing that came to his mind was, cue the music: dun- dun- dun, “The cafeteria!” Shocker. Jordan’s concern was, “Does the cafeteria actually separate trash from recyclables? Since the upkeep on the big spinning thing is down, they probably just dump everything into one large garbage.”

According to campusdish.com, ARAMARK, the food service provider at FIT, “[has] a deep respect for and commitment to protecting and improving the environment,” and “is committed to minimizing our environmental footprint by fostering a culture that reduces, reuses, and recycles waste.” To check if what ARAMARK says on their website holds true to their practices, I went behind closed doors to see what really happens after you place your post-meal items on the “big spinning thing,” otherwise known as a food conveyor belt.

Once your items are spun around to the backside of the food conveyor belt, the items are indeed separated. Glass, cans, bottles, jars, silverwear (not the plastic kind FIT uses--only the metal fork from your house that you accidently discarded with your trash) metal, china, pans, wood, towels/rags and scrubs/pads, all get placed into a large blue recycling bin, later to be divided and picked up by the Department of Sanitation. As for the rest, all trash and plastic bottles, yes you read that correctly- plastic bottles, gets pulped according to Bob Dome, Food Service Director at FIT. The Somat solid waste pulpier, used at FIT, combines the waste products and plastic bottles with water to create a “food waste slurry,” which is then pumped into a Hydra-extractor.

Kara Lewis ized brushed screw auger and cylindrical screen to extract most of the water from the slurry resulting in a semi-dry pulp,” claims the Somat company website. The end result? “It reduces 10 huge bags of garbage down to one,” says Dome.

Heath Kreiman, Assistant Food Service Director, provides some insight as to why the plastic bottles aren’t separated from the pulping process. All bottled beverages sold in the cafeteria come in plastic bottles. According to Kreiman, the seperate collecting and recycling of plastic bottles by the cafeteria could lead to a potential “rodent problem.”

But if the students want to take it upon themselves to recycle their own bottles, and “get the nickel,” they can do so.

The cafeteria cannot.

Walking off the escalator and into the B lobby, I approached the student ambassador table, with another pair of returning FIT students. Dellamarie Sousa and Marisa Politi, both FMM, expressed the same concern. Information had been shared with them, by student council representatives, at a Merchandising Committee meeting at the end of last semester pertaining to FIT’s recycling program. What had they heard? That the fee for not recycling was less than the cost of actually recycling. Therefore the building and grounds staff just combines all recyclables with the trash.

I then contacted student council representative Erica Turnerappleby to find out FITSA’s knowledge on FIT’s recycling policy. But there was no response so I contacted packaging design professor Sandy Krasovec, a member of the President’s Council on Sustainability and a member on the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Sustainability Committee, to discuss FIT’s current recycling policy. She invited George Jefremow, P.E, Executive Director of Facilities, Facilities Management, and Mohammad Sdad, Director of Building & Grounds at FIT, to help

address any questions I had. The first document presented to me was from Javier D. Lojan, District Superintendent, M5, Department of Sanitation for the City of New York, which stated:

Mr. Sdad explains, “So the building and grounds workers have to end up combining the trash and recyclables, then separating and re-sorting them over again.”

“This letter is to confirm that your facility (F.I.T) has been placing out recyclables for Department of Sanitation collection. There are paper recyclables placed out and metal, glass, and plastics placed out every Friday.”

“We aren’t capable of determining exactly who is not disposing of recycled trash correctly,” says Mr. Jefremow.

“We would like to encourage students, faculty and staff to use the recycling bins as directed, to continue and further improve FIT’s recycling program,” stated Jefremow.

The document shows proof that F.I.T has been, and does in fact separate the trash, paper and cardboard, glass, cans and plastic materials, and bulk items including wood and large metal objects.

Mr. Sdad was even kind enough to take me out behind the C Building to show me all the different dumpsters containing these separated items.

The problem, apparently, with FIT’s recycling policy does not lie within the buildings and grounds department- it lies with the students, faculty and staff.

“The bins are not being used properly,”

In the end it takes a “community-wide effort,” as Professor Krasovec put it, to make FIT’s recycling program run as smoothly as possible. So really, it’s up to all of us. Whether it’s at your home or in school, take the time to separate your trash, because if you don’t someone else will have to sort through your banana peels to pick out the cans or paper you didn’t feel like separating.

“The Hydra-extractor uses a specialRecyling Bins at FIT

The Pulpier

Pulped Trash

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Seven Days of the Eco-Footprint Left by FIT Student Emma Brooke MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

10:00 A.M It has recently been brought to my attention that I may not be the most eco-friendly of folk. In the age of the “Green Frenzy” I find people becoming increasingly conscious and judgmental about their own and others’ carbon footprints. Okay so I’m not a member of Greenpeace and I don’t donate to the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, but I’m not some insensitive jerk who spends my free time dumping garbage into the ocean. However, as an experiment I have decided to keep a journal for the next week in which I shall honestly report and assess my everyday dealings with recycling, garbage, and ability to be “environmentally aware.”

8:00 A.M

11:30 A.M

Awakened without alarm by the blinding light of my eastward-facing windows and the demented neighbor’s cat who seems to habitually howl every morning at sunrise like a mad rooster. The birds nesting outside my air conditioner rustle noisily, annoying me even more now that I am up at such an ungodly hour. I angrily reach over and punch the air conditioner and the rustling momentarily subsides.

On my way to work. I’ve been stuck on the blasted L train forever (surprise surprise) due to a delay ahead. I have also been chewing the same piece of gum FOREVER. You see, I possess a strange disorder which limits me from chewing on a single piece of gum for more than 5 minutes. At this point, I’ve got to spit it out. It’s gone all hard and tasteless. I search my handbag for a tissue or an old receipt into which I can spit my gum. Complete fail.

4:00 P.M Took my recycling out and put it in the gigantic blue bin at the street corner. Feeling remarkably good about myself, as if with one bag of empty wine bottles, orange juice containers and butter tins I am giving back to society in epic proportions. This of course, is not true, but I’m not going to lie. I do feel better about myself.

THURSDAY 9:16 A.M Aha! So biodegradable gum does exist! These ecoconscious people think of everything. According to treehugger.com (I can’t believe I actually went on this site), a new organic and biodegradable gum called Chicza Rainforest Gum was introduced early last year into British supermarkets. The gum was introduced by a small co-operative in the Mexican rainforest, where they are able to extract white sap from the trees in a way that preserves them. After 8 years the trees are healed, and the resulting gum starts to break down immediately after chewing it. I think this will save Britain and potentially other cities a great deal of money annually in street cleanup.

It’s hard to part with your favorite breath-freshener, and it’s hard to not sometimes let yourself leave a tiny wad of gum on the sidewalk. It’s so small and seems harmless. However, now I’m starting to think I should re-program this careless habit.

FRIDAY I have decided to join a gym! Not just any gym mind you, but The Green Fitness Studio. It’ s a fitness center which (aside from conveniently being down the street from my Bushwick apartment) is designed in every aspect to be sustainable and eco-friendly.

For example, the floors are made from bamboo and recycled rubber and the equipment is remanufactured (which means keeping trash out of landfills). The toilets and faucets and showerheads are all low-flow, the lights are compact fluorescent and the mirrored glass of the main atrium helps to minimize the costs of heating the gym. Pretty smart.

My uncle actually lives in a completely solar-powered house outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has buffalo grass growing on his roof and the sun is so hot there that the solar panels of his house always manage to soak up and retain a great deal of heat. It’s ecofriendly to be sure, but you could never completely do something like that in New York because it gets so dark in the wintertime.

After a few minutes and failure to fall asleep again, I decide to do the one thing I know will entertain me at 8am: cleaning. This is the true life of a neurotically neat person. Last night I decided to abandon my usual 409 cleaner (once used as a commercial solvent and degreaser--yikes) and purchased Citrasolv in the spirit of being more environmentally friendly. The label boasts all-natural ingredients that cut through grease using good ol’ fashioned essential oils. GOODBYE toxic, contact-irritating and cough-inducing spray.

11:00 A.M I LOVE this stuff. Words cannot describe the amazing-ness of this cleaning spray. (And no, I am not high on cleaning solvents.) My boyfriend remarked that it smells a bit like Pez candy. Not to mention the fact that my kitchen is now sparkling clean. I guess it goes to show that you don’t have to sacrifice performance when you switch to naturally, eco-friendly cleaners.

SATURDAY 10 A.M You never realize how much waste one human can produce until you live with a bunch of girls. I used to live with three of them and our trash was monumentally problematic. At one point--being the advertising student that I am--I designed a cardboard recycling box with four sides of colorful pictures. It depicted things such as a tragic-looking Polar Bear crying atop a miniscule polar ice cap. The idea was to encourage all of us to recycle, but after awhile nobody really gave a damn about my box and the empty cartons and pasta boxes began to overflow. Before you knew it, we had one recycling box and two additional “recycling bags.”

My consensus is that we are fundamentally lazy.

11:26 A.M

11:36 A.M Still have yet to move. I have forgotten my book and my i-pod has just died (because things like this only happen when you are delayed underground in the subway.) I’m beginning to feel like I have lockjaw. I can’t remember Trident ever being this bad!

11:56 A.M Finally arrive in Soho for work, dashing down Prince Street at top speed looking like a lunatic. Where is a trash can? There are always trashcans around here!

I’ve gone the back way and I can’t see one, and I really can’t be bothered to chew this piece of gum any longer. I discreetly take my gum out of my mouth and throw it behind my back hoping that nobody notices.

4:30 P.M Had two customers from the Philippines in the store today. Ironically, I learned from them that it is illegal to litter with gum in Singapore, and can result in a fine of up to $1000 or $2000 for repeat offenders. At first I thought this was a bit mad (at this point I would owe tens of thousands of dollars) but then it got me thinking. If New York had a similar ban on gum-littering, our sidewalks, streets and subway systems would look a million times better. Not to mention the fact that gum is not biodegradable. It would be a little bit kinder on our environment as well.

I felt like such a horrible person as they were explaining the benefits of living in a litter-free society, thinking back o all the pieces of gum I have abandoned on sidewalks all over the nation. Clearly some greater organic being is trying to tell me that I am a horrible and environmentally-unconscious person.

SUNDAY

Explaining to my mother by phone that after this week, I no longer consider myself environmentally conscious. Sure, I recycle but I get lazy sometimes and I don’t separate everything. I bought natural house cleaner but so what? I spit my gum on the ground, and when other people litter, I don’t say anything! I’m just not one of those die-hard environmentalists, I 8:45 P.M suppose. I care, but I’m never going to be that crazy There is an angst-ridden teen on the train who looks girl painting her face like the globe on Earth Day like a baby Adam Lambert (only more menacing) and and parading around with a hat made from recycled he just threw a Kit-Kat wrapper on the ground! Nortoilet covers. I’m never going to be that girl who buys mally I wouldn’t care, since the subways are so disgust- a reusable tote just to be trendy. I feel like half the ing anyways, but I swear it was deliberate. Or perhaps people out there don’t even care, they just buy a “Feed my eco-friendly radar is on. Anyway, he looked right the World” bag because it makes them look like a betat me and heaved it angrily at the ground. Wow, big ter person and then they parade around the city feeling gesture cowboy. Don’t paint your nails black or hate the like an elevated member of society. world or anything.

My conclusion is: if I’m going to be more environI was sorely tempted to make some snide remark, but mentally friendly, I’m going to do it in my own, small restrained myself because he did look a little emotion- way. I’m going to make a conscious effort to separate ally unstable and last time I said something to someone my paper and my plastic and to not litter and to pick on a subway they tried to punch me. So much for being up a piece of garbage on the street now and then! In a good Samaritan. I almost picked it up myself, but I my own small way, I’ll make the contribution I can. didn’t want everyone to think I was out of my mind.

And I’m okay with that.

I just proved my own point. How sad is that? In my rush to make the train on time, carry my extra tote of work clothes and simultaneously take out my trash and recycling, I am ashamed to admit that I failed to separate some of the recycling and regular trash. I just couldn’t fit all the recycling in one bag! Fail once again.

IT’S TIME FOR REGIME CHANGE AROUND HERE. CALLING ALL CAMPUS VIPS AND THEIR VELCROIDS* (*people who keep in close proximity to an important leader) Face it: you have a hidden desire to be worshipped, idolized and adored; to be pursued by the Snaparazzi (those who can’t resist taking your picture); to be immortalized by Celebloggers everywhere (those who blog about famous people), and maybe even have your very own Stalker Site. Now’s your big chance to run for a student government position. So here’s how to get the ball rolling.

• Submit a petition to the Department of Student Life in A713 no later than Tuesday, March 2nd.

The earlier the better.

• Attend a mandatory meeting with Professor Nancy Grossman, director of Student Life, at 1:00 pm in A721 on March 4th.

• Say Cheese! On March 2nd from 10 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 3 pm in room A739 black-and-white pictures of all candidates will be taken for W27 and the student election website. No appointment necessary. But there’s a sign-up sheet posted in room A739.

• Write a few paragraphs about everyone’s all-time favorite topic: You. Tell FIT voters why you are running for office and the contribution you can make to the Student Association. Don’t go over one page, typed and double spaced.

Note the deadline on this: March 2 and no later. You can email it if you like.

• Start campaigning. Once your petition is in, you can start putting up your poster all over the FIT campus.

Limit: 100 copies.

• Practice that handshake and smile, smile, smile!

FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

11

STyle On 27

Lessons in Vintage Rockage: Roxy Kirshenbaum took to the street with her camera and one thing in mind: vintage fashion at FIT. After all, vintage clothing is not only trendy, it happens to promote sustainability in a huge way. Here, fellow FITers incorporate recycled clothing into their wardrobes so well, that they just might be able to school other Manhattanites in their ways.

Vintage Pieces Clock Wise from top left: First two: All; Glasses; Leather Jacket; All; Sweater and Handbag.

FIT SPEAKS Dear Jess, My roommate from last semester was rude and boring. All she did was sit at her desk on her computer all day and mutter comments about my friends and I under her breath. Maybe we were too loud or something but she never talked to me about it. I’m getting a completely random roommate for the new semester and I’m really nervous. How can I make sure that I will have better luck this time?

-Room and bored.

Room and boredLet me start by saying things could have been worse.

When my mom was in college, her first roommate only ate carrots. Dozens of them a day--only to then throw them up in the shower. Yes, the shower. The horror stories go on and on. However, your complaint is a frequent one. When thrown to live in a 4’ by 4’ room with a stranger, you both hope for the best, but there is always a huge chance your personalities or living styles

clash. The results could be disastrous. I am glad that you recognized that you may have been part of the problem the first time and I promise that there are ways get off to a better start with your new roomie. First, set some rules. You must be completely honest--if you can’t stand when people touch your things, don’t act like this doesn’t bother you because you don’t want to seem paranoid or anal. Face it, you are paranoid and probably anal too. No one ever died from someone else sitting on their bed. I don’t think…. But really, if things like this do bother you, tell you roommate upfront so that it won’t happen later on and you wont have to worry about “germs” or whatever it is you’re so uptight about.

If you need silence when you sleep, don’t tell your roommate you’re fine with her boyfriend having band practice in your room at 3 am. You’ll be sleep deprived and irritable and it’ll just cause problems for everyone who comes in contact with you. Moral of the story: we all have things that make us tick, being honest with your roommate in the beginning could prevent the outbreak of World War 3 in your room a month later. You mentioned a “boring” roommate, so I’m going to assume that you would prefer to be friends with your room-

mate and do fun things together. Find things you have common. No, I don’t mean “oh we both have a sister!” or “we both like to shop!” You go to a fashion school, 99% of people here like to shop. The other 1%... I haven’t figured them out yet. Anyway, the best bonds are over things...or…people… that you both dislike.

“Best” bonds doesn’t directly translate to healthy bonds, but hey, we’re looking for fun. Is there a really annoying girl down the hall whose room smells like a spice cabinet and who made really obnoxious comments at the first floor meeting? If she bothers you, your roommate probably feels the same way. I’m not suggesting that you make it obvious to this girl that you think she’s totally lame--that’s just mean--but what you say behind closed doors is harmless. Right? Isn’t that what they taught us in Kindergarden? If you have nothing nice to say, say it behind someone’s back? Ok, maybe I took naptime early and missed that lesson. Make up code names for people in your building that only you two know. I promise it will be a special bond. Either that or your new roommate will think you’re immature and cynical. If so, just blame it on me. Good luck!

–Jess

W27 encourages any and all Art and Design students to submit their comics, cartoons, and visual narratives for the D-Building page. Think of it as your monthly showcase. Email High-Res TIFF format artwork to W27newspaper@gmail.com with the subject “D-Building Submission.�

D-Building