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Clean energy gets a boost from MTV
Addiction Challenge invites campuses to ditch oil, go green
By Josie Klemaier
jklemaie@mscd.edu

The Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board and Auraria’s student chapter of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group are working together to raise awareness across campus about alternative energy and the environment as part of MTV’s Break the Addiction Challenge.

The Break the Addiction Challenge, launched by MTV on Sept. 6, teamed up with the Campus Climate Challenge, a national campaign to make college campuses powered by clean energy.

The challenge seeks to motivate students to work toward global warming solutions and reducing U.S. oil dependence.

Auraria recently used money from the tri-institutional clean energy student fees to purchase 17 million kilowatt-hours of wind renewable energy credits from Sterling Planet earlier this semester, enough wind energy to power 45 percent of the campus for the entire year.

The Break the Addiction Challenge focuses on raising awareness on campuses in the hope that students will spread their energy concerns throughout their surrounding cities, said Mary Nicol, national campaign coordinator for the Break the Addiction Challenge.

“Our focus is to talk about solutions,” Nicol said at a Campus Climate Challenge campaign meeting with interested students and CoPIRG members. “Historically, students have been the catalyst behind social issues.”

The meeting was a brainstorming session for ideas on how to spread awareness of the program on Auraria campus and get students involved, Nicol said.

MTV and the Campus Climate Challenge will award grants to school groups who finish first in the Challenge’s goals for the fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters. The fall goal includes generating press coverage from student and local publications, and local and national TV stations. The top five groups will be awarded $1,000 each.

The spring goal looks to motivate campuses to switch to 100-percent clean energy, with an award of $5,000 going to the top two groups to throw a “Break the Addiction party” for their school.

The “final exam” of the challenge is “to go the furthest and the fastest to reduce your global warming pollution down to zero,” according to the Campus Climate Challenge website. An award of up to $10,000 for an “eco-renovation” of a student lounge at the winners’ school will be given to the top two groups.

One method discussed was getting student input on the clean energy fee, which goes to the Auraria Board for re-approval this spring. The fee was passed by students in 2004 and is near the end of its three-year implementation.

SACAB is currently conducting a survey asking what students think about the clean energy fee and if they would support a continuance of the fee and even a raise from $1 per student per semester up to $5 per semester.

“Our goal is to show the students how important this fee is,” SACAB chair Shaun Lally said. He said with the rise of student fees, some might view the clean energy fee as frivolous and want to cut it.

“We are going to make sure students know about this whether they like it or not,” said Lindsey Gavioli, a UCD student, state board chair for CoPIRG student chapters and a coordinator of the energy campaign. “We are setting a legacy,” she said.

Money collected from the clean energy fee will also be put toward solar energy on campus. Proposals are still going through the Auraria board for solar possibilities that could be manifested in the next year, said Gavioli.