From classrooms to City Hall: Students, professor ‘revive’ recycling momentum

Two weeks after the Board of Aldermen shot down Alderman Hamp Beatty’s curbside recycling proposal, Emma Van Epps stood at the podium in an Old Main Academic Center classroom to lead the weekly Students for a Sustainable Campus meeting.

After the club’s usual agenda and small groups, Van Epps introduced associate professor of architecture at Mississippi State University Alexis Gregory, who told members to continue pushing the City of Starkville toward curbside recycling.

Gregory, who also serves Ward 5 on the city’s planning and zoning commission, worked with Ward 5 Alderman Beatty to outline the recycling presentation. The associate professor explained the board meeting’s results to SSC members.

She told the club to continue its momentum, using students’ voices to encourage the aldermen to reconsider their doubts about curbside recycling.

“(Alderman Beatty) and I are hoping you’ll continue your pressure and try to make the city look bad,” Gregory said.

SSC had planned a recycling protest for Earth Week, and Gregory suggested moving the rally up in the calendar.

“I love the idea of having a protest, maybe earlier than Earth Day,” Gregory said, “because (Alderman Beatty and I) were just talking about, hopefully, if we can get things to work, maybe starting curbside recycling for Earth Week, something like that.”

Before that, though, the board will have to approve the motion to reinstate curbside recycling.

Alderman Beatty said Gregory’s assistance with the curbside recycling proposal strengthened his research. He said she and SSC’s assistance transformed the potential of his proposal.

Alderman Beatty credited SSC with “reviving” the curbside recycling idea.

“They kind of put it back on us that we’re the only Southeastern Conference host town that did not have curbside recycling,” Beatty said in an interview with The Reflector. “They brought up some very pertinent, important facts, information that, you know, we needed to take a look at.”

Beatty said he had thought of reinstating the program beforehand, but SSC’s comments to the board urged him to work on an official proposal.

REVIVE, 2

Her book covers strategies historically used in public relations and stories of those currently making strides toward diversity and equality in the field.

Fisher said she believes anyone can benefit from reading her book, and anyone who is interested in communicating effectively can be a scholar of the discipline.

“In all of our social movements, those groups practiced public relations: the civil rights movement, the farm workers’ movement, the American Indian movement. Even though it wasn’t termed ‘public relations,’ that is exactly what they were doing,” Fisher said.

Mary Michaela Parker, marketing and communication coordinator in the agricultural communications department,

“Well, when we first moved here, we started in the same department. I was hired as a lecturer of Spanish, and then I ended up getting my Ph.D. Now I have a different role in the department,” Kelly Moser said.

While the couple work in the same department, they remain distanced by their own fields of study.

“Even though we're one department, we have so many different languages that there's still, you know, separation. So, we don't,

Similarly, employees of the company received news of Chicken Salad Chick’s departure on the Saturday night before the store closed on Monday, Jan. 31.

However, the Parkers did not leave their employees to fend for themselves. While many of their employees were part-time workers, the store had a number of full-time employees who solely relied on their income from Chicken Salad Chick.

“We did go to the people who had kids and supported families and worked full time — they are still on our payroll,”

Van Epps has also worked alongside sanitation services director Christopher Smiley to guide SSC’s outreach. However, SSC works with a limited number of city employees, so Van Epps said clear explanations to the aldermen strengthen curbside recycling’s case. She noted Beatty’s proposal was not the program’s end goal but rather the stepping stones that lead to the bigger picture. “So, I think communicating to the board that this is a start-up — like this is not the great, long, decades-later — this is not the long-term plan for recycling,” Van Epps said. “This is just the preliminary ‘getting the process reinstated’ plan.

Beatty said board members’ personal opinions might influence their disapproval of curbside recycling. He said he is presenting a new plan at the board's Feb. 7 meeting that readjusts sanitation fees. While aldermen raised concerns for the program at their last meeting, Van Epps said she is not losing hope. She said Alderman Beatty’s support of curbside recycling motivated SSC members.

“Being able to know that we had at least one alderman said she agrees that knowledge of communication and public relations is useful to anyone in any field.

“I think people underestimate just how important communications efforts are,” Parker said.

“Whether you’re a math professor or someone who works in agriculture, you’re going to have to engage in some form of communication. We all communicate.”

Fisher spoke of the message she intends for readers to take from her book.

“I want people to get a full view of history. Not to say that we dwell in the past, but to say that we can move forward from it and advance,” Fisher said.

Angelina Leopard, a freshman majoring in communication, expressed a you know, come home, and talk about work constantly, for example, but we enjoy working together,” Kelly Moser said.

The Mosers said there were other benefits of both working in the CMLL department. As an ensemble, the duo could present at interdisciplinary conferences and have the benefit of knowing the same colleagues.

“Both of us being in academia, I would say, is incredibly helpful because we understand the pressures of

Cameron Parker said. According to the Parkers, they are giving full-time employees opportunities to work at other businesses the Parkers own.

While Chicken Salad Chick has closed its doors, a new concept is entering Starkville in the coming months. The Parkers said they were excited to announce a new restaurant would soon take over the space that Chicken Salad Chick once occupied.

According to Cameron Parker, the business will be more locally focused, so the owners could adapt to similar sentiment.

“We shouldn’t dwell in the past, but instead open a new pathway,” Leopard said.

Aspen Harris, a freshman communication major, said she has seen some of those new pathways beginning to open already.

“Clearly, there is massive growth and change occurring,” Harris said. “With these changes comes the ability for all minorities to eventually ‘break the glass ceiling’ and be more represented. It will take time, but I believe the field will continue to grow and become more diverse every year.” academia. Being at Mississippi State now for as long as we have, we know, kind of, how Mississippi State works. So, we can address challenges together in that way,” Kelly Moser said.

Fisher’s book, “The Untold Power: Underrepresented Groups in Public Relations,” is available for purchase. For more information, readers can visit the Business Expert Press website.

After almost 16 years in the CMLL department, the Mosers said they felt like MSU veterans.

“Well, I think, Mississippi State … it's our home. Pretty much everything we do has some connection to Mississippi State,” Kelly Moser said. “We have a daughter, who, you what the customers want. It will be a sit down style restaurant with servers and career chefs in the kitchen. know, is very familiar with Mississippi State, and we hope someday she might be able to go there.” As the Valentine’s Day season approaches, the couple said they would likely spend the evening with their daughter and two dogs. working with us directly to … help influence some of the other aldermen and show them the kind of research that we’ve been doing and kind of present it in a more official way was very encouraging to us,” Van Epps said in an interview.

With the new restaurant opening in a few months, the Parkers said they will hire former Chicken Salad Chick employees to join their team.

While the closing of Chicken Salad Chick was difficult for the Parkers, they said they look forward to continuing to work for the Starkville community.

“That is the way we spread love to everybody, we feed people,” Dianna Parker said.

The Mosers agreed that Starkville’s college town atmosphere appealed to their love of cheap eats.

“I’m going to say we’ll be eating Buffalo Wild Wings, pizza, beer … you know, watch TV with the dogs,” Kelly Moser said.

Alderman Beatty said he was also grateful to work alongside SSC because the city was growing and needed to evolve with its growth.

“I’m glad they are pushing us,” Beatty said. “because it … kind of pushes us out of our comfort zone, comfort level. We’ve gotten comfortable with this drop off thing, and I think we just kind of settled into it.”

Made up of students, SSC members are spread between classes, extracurriculars, jobs and social functions. Van Epps said working with professionals and community members helped magnify the club’s voice.

“So, that’s where a lot of our help, through professors like Alexis Gregory at the university, and just people in the community supporting our cause have been really critical,” Van Epps said.

Interested in science from a young age, Van Epps said her love and devotion to caring for the environment formed from when she was Girl Scout who spent time outdoors with her family and friends.

“I’m not motivated to, like, recycle and, like, have a better environment for myself … I think of it more like planting a seed that I might not get to see sprout,” the senior biomedical engineering major said, “but it is fulfilling to be part of the process that would provide better opportunities and a more sustainable environment for future generations.”

Beatty agreed, saying his five-year-old grandson’s future motivated him to take a vested interest in the environment.

Throughout the many meetings and discussions of recycling, Van Epps, Gregory and Aldermen Beatty all voiced the same message: citizens of Starkville need to express support for curbside recycling to the Board of Aldermen.

“Unless enough people put enough pressure on other board members to do it, it’s going to be hard to get done,” Beatty said.

Beatty presented a new curbside recycling proposal to the board Tuesday. Read about it in the next issue of The Reflector.