By Jonathan Martinez and Sandy Hill/reporters
The environmental club, inactive until 2008, currently has several members but has set a goal of recruiting more members and getting more interest from faculty members starting this semester.
The club will have its first meeting of the semester at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 16 in NSTU 1204A.
On Sept. 29, Adam Briggle of the University of North Texas philosophy department will give a talk on Lessons from the Gulf Oil Spill: From the Control of Nature to the Control of Self at 12:30 p.m. in NSTU Center Corner.
When the club was reactivated, the old name was kept, but the organization is considering changing the name to create more interest. The club’s organizers also want to better suit the organization’s new focus of creating awareness in the community.
Reactivating the club provided an opportunity for NE Campus student Amity Womelsdorff, an environmental enthusiast, to take action for an issue she is concerned about, she said.
“We went ahead and kept the name that had been used when we reactivated it,” she said. “We don’t dislike it, but maybe a new name would wake people up.”
Womelsdorff and Michael Gorder, also a NE Campus student, are spearheading the club’s new focus.
“Right now, we are the Student Environmental Awareness organization but might soon be the Global Awareness Initiative Activist organization and focus more on promoting awareness,” Gorder said.
“We really just need to focus on the environment more, and that was my main motivation,” Womelsdorff said.
Both Womelsdorff and Gorder became motivated to take action after documentaries about environmental issues inspired them.
“Awareness of environmental issues and what we can do as people individually and the district as a whole and the idea of being more self-sustainable is our main focus,” Womelsdorff said.
According to Gorder, how transportation is being handled on the various TCC campuses is the most important topic for the organization to discuss.
“The biggest thing on my mind for the future is to create a TCC transportation service so students don’t have to drive from one campus to another and can instead use a campus bus line,” he said. “That is our biggest wish: to get a transportation system since everyone is driving their own car to campus and nobody is carpooling, and there are no bus lines or mass transit options.”
The organization plans to work with Phi Theta Kappa and the Student Ambassador Association and hopes to have more contact with other TCC environmental clubs.
Students interested in becoming a member of the new organization can join through the CampusCruiser website. E-mail questions and ideas can be sent to michael.gorder@my.tccd.edu.
