This proposal looks to contribute to the campus wide effort of promoting more sustainable landscaping by creating a Prairie Garden comprised of plant species characteristic to east-central Illinois to surround the Deloitte Auditorium in the courtyard of the Business Instructional Facility (BIF). The Prairie Garden will provide carbon sequestration benefits, aid in management of water runoff, increase biodiversity, and reduce the use of carbon-intensive maintenance equipment. Replacing the current overgrown sedge meadow with low-height, low-growth, native sustainable botanicals will lead to less management needs and greater student engagement with increased access and aesthetics. The Prairie Garden will be highly visible to the thousands of weekly visitors to the BIF, sending a message about the importance of and commitment to sustainable practices. Such education will be furthered through informational signage and orientation of new students. The College of Business and College of Business Class of 2010 will provide the remaining $10,540 expense of creating the Prairie Garden. Further, the College of Business will assume responsibility for ensuring the success and continued maintenance of the project, and the grant will be paid back to the Committee if the project is inadequately maintained and the restoration effort is abandoned in the next five years. The improvements to the Business Instructional Facility courtyard will provide highly visible, tangible evidence of the campus commitment to responsible sustainable behavior. Thus, the Student Sustainability Committee is in favor of funding the fully requested amount of $10,000.