Pace Paw Print

The Student Association of Pleasantville recently passed an environmental resolution written by two Pace students, which will now be sent to higher administrators to look at.

Alec Rosenblum, a junior religious studies and philosophy major, and Steven Matthew Reed, a two year law student at Pace Law, were the authors of the resolution, which symbolizes the desire of the students of the Pleasantville campus for the administration to take steps to make the campus more environmentally sustainable.

Rosenblum began the process of drafting the resolution last month when Michelle Land, Program Coordinator for Pace Academy for the Environment and Donna Kowal, a staff associate for the same Academy, put him in touch with Reed, who had already drafted his own resolution for the law school. Reed said they still haven't met in person, but have been communicating online.

"Matt did a wonderful job of expressing the ethics," Rosenblum said. He said he added to Reed's proposal by stating how people can benefit from environmental policies.

"People want to hear that people can save money out of it," he explained.

Rosenblum's involvement in getting the Pleasantville campus greener, however, did not start with the proposal.

As a commuter student who frequently hung out in the commuter lounge in Kessel, Rosenblum noticed there were no recycle bins in the area, and received permission to install three, two of which he paid for himself.

Since installing the recycle bins, Rosenblum, along with a group of other students, have cashed in the bottles and donated the money to Relay For Life. One snag, however, was when they realized New York State only provided refunds for soda and beer.

"It's back to the drawing board for that," he said. "But ultimately there is a recycle bin where there wasn't one."

Reed said the recycling program at the law school also has room for improvement.

"There are questions about its effectiveness…it's definitely not as strong as it could be."

However, he said students at the law school have also showed an interest in making campus greener. For example, the students recently started running a vegetable garden on campus.

Now that the Pleasantville proposal has passed, the next step is for the Dean of Students, Lisa Bardill-Moscaritolo, to examine it. According to Rosenblum, the next step from there is unknown.

Meanwhile, Reed proposed his resolution to the Student Bar Association meeting and will hear their response next week. If passed, he plans to present it to Michelle Simon, the Dean of the Law School. If it fails, "We'll start over and look at what we need to do."

The NYC campus is also showing signs in getting involved.

Rosenblum said Atalya Kozak, an environmental studies major at NYC, contacted him through Land and is taking the resolution, with minor adjustments, to the NYC campus. He said the ultimate goal was for a unified proposal from both campuses.

Reed and Rosenblum have ideas that they would like to see implemented as a result of the resolution, such as installing low flow faucets, a solar roof or a green roof, which involves having plants on the roof to prevent run-off.

Reed said the smaller projects such as the vegetable garden, low running faucets and making sure all paper is recyclable can be implemented immediately because of their low cost, unlike the bigger projects, such as the green roofs.

"That's not going to happen anytime soon," he said.

"If Pace can't do something now, they could pledge to do that for future buildings," Rosenblum said.

The resolution states three "overarching goals" Pace's environmental policy should take, including reducing operational costs, creating a strong sense of community, and reducing the harmful effects caused by the university on the environment.

It affirms "that the implementation of change is not instantaneous, the university should adopt a "Pace Pledge" to institute environmentally sustainable changes in all of its new endeavors."

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