As reported in The Pantagraph, the Nov. 17 MegaRecycling Event at Illinois Wesleyan drew an estimated double the number of participants compared to last year. The event was also featured on WMBD/WYZZ TV.
Category Archives: News
New Textile Drop-Off
Wellness is now providing a convenient, continuous way to move out the clothes and textile clutter in your closet.
Home Sweet Home Ministries (HSHM) is providing us with a collection bin just outside of the Wellness Office at Shirk Center.
You can now drop off unwanted clothing, textiles and shoes. These items will go back to HSHM and be sorted.
Usable items will be sold in the Mission Mart, and items past their useful life will be recycled into new textiles and goods. All the proceeds from these efforts go to assist the homeless members of our community.
If you have any questions, please contact Wellness at ext. 3334 or wellness@iwu.edu
Additionally, if you have winter coats or winter wear to give away, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity will be collecting these items for the Salvation Army during the week of Oct. 22-26. Drop-offs will be in the CNS atrium, in Hansen Student Center and at the Memorial Center front desk.
Cardboard Collected on Move-In Day
As students moved onto campus last month, 4.5 bales of collapsed cardboard boxes were collected.
The Office of Residential Life organized the collection as part of campus sustainability efforts and to benefit the homeless in our community served by Home Sweet Home Ministries, which will resell the material.
Catch a Bus in Real Time
Finding a sustainable commute by catching public transportation just got much easier: The Bloomington-Normal Public Transit System is now Connect Transit. You can see where buses are in real time online, or download the DoubleMap app for your smartphone.
Campus Copiers are Going Greener
Illinois Wesleyan has contracted with a new provider, CDS Office Technologies, for new Konica-Minolta multi-function copiers. These devices meet international environmental standards, including Energy Star, Japan’s Eco Mark, Germany’s Blue Angel Mark and the Eco Leaf Environmental Label, which is based on a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle.
To help reduce waste, toner levels will be monitored electronically and new cartridges automatically delivered as needed (so they aren’t ordered in over-abundance). Used cartridges and parts will be recycled.
This fall, software will be implemented that offers feedback about the carbon emissions produced when selecting various device options. CDS will be working with the campus community in an ongoing effort to help reduce the environmental impact of printing and copying.
IWU Peace Garden
The new IWU Peace Garden has been planted with tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, gourds, beets, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, sage, onion, beans, sugar snap peas, dill, cilantro, tomatillos, squash and potatoes.
The garden — located north of IWU’s practice fields — is dedicated to providing education and fresh produce for the campus and Bloomington-Normal communities. Organizers hope to distribute the produce to Clare House, Sodexo and an on-campus farmers market.
Ryan Dyar ’14, Danny Kenny ’13 and Alex Monzon ’13 are working on the garden as interns for the Action Research Center, under the guidance of Associate Professor of Political Science Jim Simeone and Action Research Center Coordinator Deborah Halperin. Kenny wrote a successful grant request to help support the garden during an Action Research Seminar.
Visit the Peace Garden blog or Facebook page for updates.
Emerald Ash Borer
Due to infestation by the Emerald Ash Borer, approximately 17 ash trees were removed from campus grounds last week, primarily in the area around the parking lot at Empire and Park streets. Safety was a factor, with concerns about limbs falling as the trees succumbed to the infestation.
The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive species that has been working its way south from Canada for several years. “It’s been called a natural disaster,” Assistant Manager of Grounds Services Ken Detloff said. “It takes out every single ash tree.”
In the years that the University grounds crew braced for the threat, they identified seven prominent ash trees for preventative treatment. Detloff described the treatment as “effective but costly,” and noted the environmental impact of using insecticides is a consideration in treating only selected trees.
Before the recent removal, there were 29 total ash trees on campus. Of the few remaining that aren’t being treated, most are located on city property — between sidewalks and street curbs — and will eventually fall under the city’s removal plans, Detloff said.
“We have a small percentage of ash trees compared with the rest of the community, so we’re fortunate,” he said. “Since all those elm trees came down years ago, we’ve really focused on diversity.”
In the 1950s, Dutch Elm disease killed more than 100 elms on campus. Today Illinois Wesleyan is home to more than 1,200 trees comprising nearly 150 different species, as noted on the campus tree map.
“Sand County, the Sequel”
Sandra Steingraber ’81 wields her singularly poetic prose on the ungainly issue of sand mining in Orion Magazine‘s May/June issue.
EV Charging Stations
Peace Garden
Doug Faulkner, executive director of the Immanuel Bible Foundation, and Illinois Wesleyan President Richard F. Wilson break ground at the new Peace Garden near campus on April 17. Danny Kenny ’13 (back left) wrote a successful grant request to support the project.