Chancellor Jones sent a congratulatory letter to the Tree Campus Advisory Committee, in recognition of their efforts to be recognized as a Tree Campus USA. That letter, as well as the letter from the Arbor Day Foundation, are attached here.

"Congratulations to all of the Campus Tree Advisory Committee on your efforts that led to Illinois being recognized as a Tree Campus USA for a third consecutive year! This is a very visible example of what our campus commitment to environmental sustainability looks like in practice. I also know that this recognition is not simply a paper honor handed out to every university that applies, but only goes to universities that meet the exacting criteria set out by the Arbor Day Foundation. Thank you for all your hard work. The new tree on the Quad planted to celebrate this latest honor is going to be a great addition to the campus skyline."

Robert J. Jones, chancellor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

See attached the Appreciation Letter sent to all SWATeams earlier this month.

The Student Sustainability Committee allocated $69,467 to complete the first tree census at Trelease Woodlands.

This proposal directly funds:

1. Student labor
2. Census equiment

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-05-07/ui-officials-working-incentives-keep-shared-bikes-populated-areas.html

UI officials working on incentives to keep shared bikes in populated areas

Mon, 05/07/2018 - 5:37pm | Tim Ditman  

CHAMPAIGN — As a dockless-bike-sharing program inches closer to reality in Champaign-Urbana, University of Illinois officials are working on an incentive program to ensure more bikes rented on campus stay in populated areas.

The concept, in general, allows people to rent bikes anywhere in town rather than at a fixed location. The two cities and the UI are working on an intergovernmental agreement to have mostly the same rules.

Lily Wilcock, active transportation coordinator for the UI, said the campus's rules will require the bikes to be returned to a rack so as not to block sidewalks or entrances to buildings, and the UI is working with bike-share companies to make that easier.

"One of the concerns we had as the University of Illinois was, what do you do if someone just rides it to their house and then they leave it there?" Wilcock said. "Some of the companies have responded to that, in that they've been using in other cities an incentive program. They've been allowing someone to ride the bus out to an area to get the bicycle, and then they get a free ride back to leave it in a more populated area. ... And then they get incentives like a certain amount of ride credit."

Wilcock said a dockless-bike-sharing system could launch on campus in the fall.

All, last Tuesday was BIKE TO WORK DAY! It was great! Great weather, great turnout, great conversation, great blindingly bright Vision Zero t shirts. I even sold some tubes and lights here at the Bike Center during the event and helped with some minor tune-ups. Peak times—no surprise—was 8:30 – 9am. After that a few stragglers hung around until  l0.

On Saturday we had the Bike Rodeo at the ARC parking lot. While we didn’t have the huge turnout we were hoping for, the event ran really smoothly and we were able to educate and teach a lot about bike safety and bike-handling skills. Nothing beats showing a kid who’s barely taller than a bike pump how to air up their tires. Needless to say, that was a team effort.

This week will be a major shop clean and purge as we’ve received another 8 or so bikes from Champaign Cycle that are on-the-whole quality bikes that need somewhere to be stored. And last week with the doors open a lot of leaves and debris got blown into the shop, so that’ll all need cleaning up as well.

Numbers:

Visitors: 70
Sales: $828.60
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $160
Memberships: 5 for $150
Tire/tube: 16 for $89

Thanks!

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager