2008 Woodie Awards
Univ. approves new avenue for green projects
Issue date: 3/27/08
Teran said that projects meeting SHIP requirements will be approved and immediately handed off to James McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration at Hopkins, who is committed to working with SHIP to find funding without taking money out of any predetermined University budgets.
"It's important to emphasize that this is not just a bunch of money sitting around waiting to be spent," Bookhart said.
He further emphasized the strong commitment Hopkins has made to supporting SHIP and its goals.
"It's a commitment for them to say, 'We already have a tight budget, but it's such a good idea and the long term ramifications of environmental stewardship are so good that we'll figure out a way to make it work.'"
For Teran, the most important aspect of SHIP will be its dependence on student involvement and student-generated ideas. Not only will students be encouraged to submit proposals, a process which Teran and Bookhart both hope to make relatively painless, but the committee reviewing proposals will ideally be composed of both students and administrators in equal parts.
"Students are a really important part of this - what other universities don't have but we will have is at least an equal number of students on the board, if not a student majority," Teran said.
Bookhart expressed a similar opinion.
"I think that the board needs to be a pretty good mixture of administration people who have a certain amount of expertise in energy or utilities, so that they can help with the technical details of evaluation, and students," he said, adding that active student involvement would ideally be one of the program's major selling points.
Applications for SHIP committee positions should be available later this week.
Green groups on campus have been expressing their support of the initiative.
"It's a really great way to get students involved in projects that will help JHU meet its sustainability goals, by getting funding for ideas they have and want to implement. It will hopefully pull on the excitement created by the Green Idea Generator," said sophomore Julia Blocher, head of HEAT (Hopkins Energy Action Team).
"It's important to emphasize that this is not just a bunch of money sitting around waiting to be spent," Bookhart said.
He further emphasized the strong commitment Hopkins has made to supporting SHIP and its goals.
"It's a commitment for them to say, 'We already have a tight budget, but it's such a good idea and the long term ramifications of environmental stewardship are so good that we'll figure out a way to make it work.'"
For Teran, the most important aspect of SHIP will be its dependence on student involvement and student-generated ideas. Not only will students be encouraged to submit proposals, a process which Teran and Bookhart both hope to make relatively painless, but the committee reviewing proposals will ideally be composed of both students and administrators in equal parts.
"Students are a really important part of this - what other universities don't have but we will have is at least an equal number of students on the board, if not a student majority," Teran said.
Bookhart expressed a similar opinion.
"I think that the board needs to be a pretty good mixture of administration people who have a certain amount of expertise in energy or utilities, so that they can help with the technical details of evaluation, and students," he said, adding that active student involvement would ideally be one of the program's major selling points.
Applications for SHIP committee positions should be available later this week.
Green groups on campus have been expressing their support of the initiative.
"It's a really great way to get students involved in projects that will help JHU meet its sustainability goals, by getting funding for ideas they have and want to implement. It will hopefully pull on the excitement created by the Green Idea Generator," said sophomore Julia Blocher, head of HEAT (Hopkins Energy Action Team).
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