Project Eco-Dawgs, a plan to coordinate the university’s green efforts, is slated to receive finishing touches at a meeting Tuesday.

The project’s objectives include implementing a green fee, forming a council responsible for sustainability on campus and hiring a coordinator to manage the university’s environmental sustainability projects.

The proposal includes structuring a sustainability council, but the meeting Tuesday will help determine the composition of that council before the proposal goes to the Board of Trustees in the spring, Jon Dyer, co-coordinator of the project, said.

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Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Larry Dietz said interim Chancellor Sam Goldman asked him to chair the group of faculty, staff and students who would address Project Eco-Dawgs’ proposals, specifically the green fee.

“If this is passed by the board in the spring, there will be an advisory committee that will be put together and a system put into place as to how projects get advanced onto that agenda for that group to make recommendations,” Dietz said. “We’re trying to get the mechanism in place to make sure that there’s money available and a protocol that’s in place that has a structure to deal with the opinions and suggestions that might come forward.”

If the Board of Trustees approves the student portion of the proposed green fee in the spring, it will be implemented in fall 2009. In April, the student body voted 996 to 372 in support of the proposed student fee. Under this plan, students would pay 83 cents per credit hour, up to 12 credit hours per semester. This means students would pay a maximum of $10 per semester.

The proposed faculty/staff green fee, which is subject to the support of a majority of staff and faculty, will be implemented through a 10 percent increase in the cost of their university parking decals.

Dyer, a junior from Edwardsville studying geography and environmental resources, said he hopes to prove to university administrators that SIUC needs to hire a sustainability coordinator to manage the project and the money it generates.

“These are really big, comprehensive undertakings and if they’re going to be done well and done right and done to really benefit our campus in the way that they can, it can’t be someone volunteering extra time and extra duties to do that,” Dyer said.

Dyer said Goldman has expressed concerns about the person to whom the proposed sustainability coordinator would report.

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Goldman did not respond to phone messages left Friday morning and Sunday evening.

The proposed sustainability coordinator will develop a sustainability and climate action plan for the campus, he said.

Don Rice, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, has been meeting with the group to discuss their initiatives. He said his primary focus for Tuesday’s meeting would be structuring an advisory board to manage the money.

“Right now we’re talking about how to best structure a green committee and how to oversee projects on the campus,” Rice said. “The proposal that was made by the Eco-Dawgs group actually sets up an advisory board, an advisory committee, so that’s what’s being discussed right now.”

Dyer said he would work with administrators Tuesday to determine the number of students, faculty and staff who will be on the sustainability council and how they will be chosen.

He said the fee, council and coordinator will help SIUC market a lot of green initiatives the university has already implemented.

“Campus greening is a huge topic in higher education right now. It’s just going through the roof,” Dyer said. “Princeton Review has a green rating now and SIUC is on par with a lot of these institutions, but we don’t promote what we do.”

Brandy Oxford can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 255 or [email protected]