With current efforts to keep the campus at limited rates of COVID-19, and to remain sanitary and healthy, some are questioning the effects this may have on the environment and whether it is possible to be sustainable campus-wide.
Since Oswego State welcomed their first-year students and transfers back to campus during the weekend of Aug. 14 to Aug. 16 and its returning on-campus students on Aug. 20 through the 24, the faculty has made their main priority health and sanitation.
For the school, one way it chose to do so was through the implementation of single-use items such as to-go containers, disposable masks and gloves as a way to limit contact and surfaces being touched and reduce the spread of the virus.
Sustainability “can be a little tricky right now,” said Katherine Spector, the sustainability planning coordinator. This is due to the uncertainty of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Once we get kind of familiar with what we are doing and figure out how to respond to this pandemic, I think that’s when we’ll be in a good position to refocus and get back to the institution’s core values, with sustainability being one of those values,” Spector said.
Michael Jean, a resident assistant in Oneida Hall, agrees with Spector, as he partakes in enforcing the measures being taken to keep students on campus safe.
“We are trying our best to keep everyone safe,” Jean said.
However, there has been an excess of garbage around campus, mainly from students who are not properly disposing their waste. Another reason for this is that the garbage cans have been filling up very quickly.
Lensa Romage, a student majoring in wellness and promotion, said there were several times when she went to the dumpsters to throw out trash and bore witness to the soiled area where the dumpsters stand.
“They just drop it on the floor,” Romage said. “The school is doing the right thing, it’s just the kids aren’t taking the time.”
Spector believes that there are things that all of us can do on an individual level to still promote certain aspects of sustainability. Some of the basic things include the use of “reusable masks, washing them by hand and taking care of them that way as opposed to using disposable masks.”
She also encourages reusable water bottles, as Oswego County’s tap water is notoriously clean. In terms of transportation, Spector recommends the bike share systems as a “safe way to get from point a to point b,” compared to other forms of public transit available on campus.
“Instead of saying, ‘this is the way I used to do things and now I’m going to continue to do those old things, now I just need to do them in a different way,’” Spector said. “Maybe this an opportunity for us to reimagine how the world works, and how we exist in this space,” said Spector.
Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian
