Imagine a program where, if you wanted to replace all the light fixtures in a Portland State building with energy-efficient lights or LEDs, you could get a loan and the savings would pay back the money. Imagine a program with fully subsidized TriMet FlexPasses for students. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? It should.
The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) was a great program and it is wonderful that the students of Portland State felt the need to pass such an initiative that could make such a big difference here on campus. Too bad it is currently not being funded.
In a nutshell, TGIF was a PSU student ballot measure last year that students voted on and passed. It was an initiative that former Student Senator Brendan Castricano led. Castricano worked to make TGIF a reality since the summer of 2008, but now the initiative has fallen to our student government to carry forward. However, it somehow got lost in the bureaucracy between the current and former ASPSU administrations.
The basics of it were simple: We all pay an extra $5 in student fees, and from that we fund a number of green projects and hopefully get a fully subsidized FlexPass. That’s right—the long-tossed-around idea of a fully subsidized FlexPass, meaning PSU students could ride Portland’s mass transit for free—after the fee of course, but five bucks for a FlexPass is pretty good.
Does the student government of PSU not owe it to the student body to make this happen? It is a little unclear as to why this particular initiative has been slowed down, an initiative that has the character of PSU written all over it. With participation in student elections so low, it would seem as if one of the only things we actually voted through should take on priority. We wanted it. We passed it. Now where is it?
For Portland State being such a green-happy campus, it is hard to believe that this program has gone so long without being funded. It would benefit not just PSU’s community, but also the environment as a whole.
It would also be a great benefit to Portland State’s student body because it encourages students to get involved in something bigger than themselves and their campus. TGIF will benefit students for getting involved in worthy causes around PSU that help the environment.
The student government needs to get funding secured for the Green Initiative Fund. They owe it to the student body, to the campus and to the environment.
It is such a wonderful thing that the students of Portland State have this opportunity and the means to contribute to the PSU community and the rest of the world. Portland State students deserve the chance to make a difference.
We students want to make a difference. We chose this. We wanted this. We need this. It will not just be a benefit to the students who voted this through, but also to the community of Portland and of Oregon.
Dear PSU student government, please make this happen, now.