Education iCAP Team had its first virtual meeting of the semester on Friday, January 20th, at 3 PM. The team has a new student member: Sydney Wei. Eric Green gave updates on his meeting with the BUS 101 course instructor Aimee Barbeau about implementing sustainability in Business classes. Afterward, after briefly explaining the iWG approved Sustainability in Study Abroad Recommendation to Sydney, the team discussed its goals and recommendation ideas for Spring 2023. 

For this semester, the new chair of the team will be Eric Green and the vice chair will be Sydney Wei. 

Meeting minutes are attached.

On January 24, Daphne Hulse met with Kasey Umland, Director of the Women's Resources Center, formerly the Associate Director at University YMCA, to discuss the following:

1. What is the history of UIUC-YMCA Dump and Run events?

   1. Started with private certified housing, religious affiliated groups around 2012. 3 semi-trailers worth of stuff from campus and from the community. A lot of staff time went into the program.

   2. Previously had 2 boxes on every floor of Illini tower, which was a huge source of items. 26 boxes in this one building. Change in Illini tower management meant YMCA couldn’t do collections here anymore. It was great to have the materials, but hard to get everything out in time. the same year, University Housing came to YMCA about their Housing salvage drive (the person who ran it left). This was the first year YMCA collaborated with UIUC.

      1. Started doing some university housing dorms, but not all.

      2. Realized they couldn’t keep up with the overflow of materials.

      3. Big shift in kinds of items they received. Went from servicing mini apartments/suites (Illini Tower) versus university dormitories. 10x the amount of stuff as before with the Illini tower. 3/4 was clothing and bedding.

   3. Talked to Housing and needing more resources. It was too hard for YMCA to keep up. Majority of volunteers who did collections were students, but it was finals. Had a close relationship with them, but students would need to go right when things were picking up near the end of the move out week.

2. Based off a quick survey of other schools move-out programs, it seems most common for schools to work with local nonprofit(s) to immediately donate items following the move out program. As opposed to storing items over the summer and preparing for a fall move-in sale. Thoughts about these two different ways of operating?

   1. Donating most items straight away seems like it may be the only way it can work for the university, since there’s an immense quantity of items to deal with.

   2. Suggest talking with intended recipients of non-profits beforehand, to see if they can accept it all immediately, or if it will be too much.

   3. Even when YMCA was running it, their excess was too much for some places.

   4. Salt and light had capacity.

   5. Goodwill said to stop (no more clothes).

   6. Most places would say they would want at least some items.

   7. The value of selling these items in a sale near move in is that there are items unique the college experience: XL twin sheets, for example.

3. What are some best practices for event coordination?

   1. If you are dealing with multiple sites - think in advance about plotting out how to do collections.

   2. Thinking about when things will come in from certain places. Which were high donation spots? Some will only need checked every so often, some places needed checked 2 or 3 times a day.

   3. Capacity - Kasey always wanted something better than just putting items in a cardboard box.

      1. It is easier if items are placed directly into a bag. Otherwise, volunteers have to do this work.

   4. Try to be really clear about what people can and cannot donate. In a perfect world, check the boxes in the evening, that’s when students move out.

4. We will have to rely on the help of volunteers, but students will have their finals during this time, and be moving out. We want to strengthen town and gown relations through this program. Any suggestions for local groups/organizations who would be good to reach out to who you think would have an interest in volunteering?

   1. Rotary Clubs

   2. Church or high school youth groups

   3. If the university would consider half day leave, that could be an incentive

   4. during business hours means it increases the privilege needed to participate

   5. Honors societies

   6. Sierra Club

   7. Junior League

   8. Humane Society

   9. Court Diversion

Sarthak Prasad and Alec McKay met to discuss Alec helping Sarthak with the 2023 BFU Application. Sarthak provided some guidelines on getting up to date with the current status of the Bike Plan goals and objectives.

A document containing notes Alec took is attached below.

On January 9, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

Attendance: Marty Kaufmann, Thurman Etchison, Dominika Szal, Jen Fraterrigo, Pete Varney, Shawn Patterson, Tony Mancuso, Steve Breitwieser, Travis Tate, Bryan Johnson, Julie Wurth, Daphne Hulse

Agenda:

1. Meeting Cadence

   1. Reduced to every other week, based on a conversation Daphne Hulse and Jen Fraterrigo had. They would like to hold strategic meetings for initiatives that extend beyond recycling (focus on waste reduction).

2. External Meeting with Coca-Cola (Jake Slager)

   1. First of the semester: Wednesday, January 25 (1-1:30pm).

   2. Once per month.

   3. Agenda: discuss upcoming basketball game, Don’t Waste Wednesdays campaign, Coca-Cola video from the 11/14 men’s basketball game.

3. DIA Sustainability Initiatives

   1. Zero Waste Big Ten Men’s Basketball Game

      1. F&S Zero Waste leading the effort, with support from iSEE, DIA, Coca-Cola.

      2. Tentatively Thursday, March 2 6pm (versus University of Michigan).

      3. More operational than forward-facing.

      4. 75-100 volunteers working in shifts. Emphasis on after-game stand pick up.

         1. Tom Divan - contact to confirm the logistics of the after-game stand pick up.

         2. Next steps:

            1. Logistics

               1. Address tunnel situation under the State Farm Center (include Shawn Patterson in this discussion).

            2. Volunteers

               1. Use iSEE’s volunteer network.

               2. Provide Marty with the names of student volunteers.

               3. Volunteers can still check-in at main west entrance, though we cannot use the Orange Krush area again.

            3. Messaging - bringing reusable bottles?

               1. Seek a sponsorship for this initiative.

               2. Giveaway versus selling?

               3. Consider DIA messaging a topic for a smaller, strategic meeting.

      5. Measuring the efficacy of the recycling effort

         1. Marty reached out to concessionaire - will follow up. Data from the concessionaire helps us understand how many items actually end up recycled.

         2. F&S measures these weights separate from the rest of campus waste.

   2. State Farm Center permanent recycling bins

      1. F&S Zero Waste working with the facility to perform an audit, create a cost breakdown, and justification for recycling infrastructure.

      2. Submit an iCAP recommendation by the end of the semester.

   3. Fall 2023 Tailgate Recycling

      1. F&S Zero Waste + iCAP Zero Waste working with Tim Knox on developing a plan for comprehensive tailgate recycling.

      2. Document is in progress…

      3. Loop in Coca-Cola when plan is more formalized.

   4. Student Involvement

      1. Students from the iCAP Zero Waste team are interfacing with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (a committee made up of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience) to determine how best students can approach sustainability initiatives within Athletics.

      2. Combine our top-down staff/faculty approaches with a bottom-up student approach.

4. Don’t Waste Wednesdays Campaign

   1. First post: iSEE on Wednesday, January 25.

   2. iSEE working on social media backgrounds.

All, Surprisingly busy start to the semester! On Friday afternoon we even had a wait on stand time, which is unheard of for January. Unfortunately, that was partially due to allowing First Visit Free repairs, which left a couple due-paying members waiting. They didn’t mind but still. For how busy we’ve been I’m already wondering if we should be open 5 days a week. However, it has been a mild winter thus far; the real test will be how many folks show up after the projected snow on Wednesday. We also had one person select and start a B-a-B.

This week I’ll schedule our staff meeting, some interviews, as well as receive a “vanload” of bikes from Champaign Cycle. They generally give us good quality stuff that we can put to use quickly, so fingers crossed. Additionally, we still have 100+ bikes to move out of the warehouse.

The numbers:

Visitors: 37
Sales: $961
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $565
Memberships: 7 or $210
Tires/tubes: 7 for $39

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

The Commuter Program page is live on the TDM website: https://fs.illinois.edu/services/more-services/tdm/commuter-program-bus-bike-and-hike. We will start with an e-update to recruit people from F&S, and then reach out to e-week and other newsletter for this pilot (cut-off at 15 participants). The recruitment will end on Feb 10, and the program will launch Feb 15.

Register here: go.fs.illinois.edu/CommuterProgram