Oh, say can UC?

Berkeley students vote on a new sustainability fund 4

Tomorrow through Friday, UC Berkeley students will vote "yay" or "nay" on TGIF (aka the Green Initiative Fund), a $5 increase in their per-semester fees that will be used to finance "initiatives on renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and 'green' student internships."

Last year, UC Santa Barbara (my school, fools) passed TGIF. Now Berkeley folks are playing catch up with this incredibly slick online campaign. Most compelling statistic: UC Berkeley uses as much electricity as Cambodia.

Video below the fold.

Yolanda Crous is a Grist contributing writer based in Santa Barbara, Calif.

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  1. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 4:20 am
    09 Apr 2007

    Kegger for Hemp Wearing HippiesNice going.  Now all the Gristies will have Free Beer for the school year.

    The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com

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  2. Julia Olmstead Posted 6:14 am
    09 Apr 2007

    speaking of $, and Cal, and sustainabilityWay to go Berkeley students! It strikes me as a little pitiful, however, how hard they must work to get $200,000 when BP recently gave $500 million to UC-Berkeley for biofuels research, which is all about sustainability and the environment and such, right? RIGHT? Seems like they could kick in a couple hundred grand a year, no?

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  3. kmacgregor Posted 11:42 pm
    09 Apr 2007

    Who should pay?While I have not read the initiative, my first reaction to this (as an alum who faced rising fees)--is why should students be paying extra for something that will ultimately save the University money?  
    I am especially dubious after reading in Sunday's Sacramento Bee about the new "Unholy Alliance" between UCB and BP.  
    Money will be made off this latest environmental crisis--I just don't want it to be made off the students.



    EnviroMac

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  4. caniscandida Posted 12:28 am
    10 Apr 2007

    students' responsibilityJulia and Farmer MacGregor have different takes on this issue, clearly; and both are right, in their ways.  Being a Peter Rabbit fan, I tend to side with Ms. Olmstead.  Students really want to be involved in this sort of thing, after all.  But Farmer MacGregor is right, too, to insist that you all ask questions about what the university is up to.
    What are the different UC campuses good at, by the way?  E.g., at UC Berkeley, they specialize in complaining?  At Santa Barbara, they specialize in meditating?  At Santa Cruz, they specialize in surfing?  At Davis, they specialize in fertilizing?  At San Bernardino, they specialize in moving far from San Bernardino?

    Chickens are our cousins!

    So are other sensitive animals!

    Enough is enough!

    No more factory farms!

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