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Show 4 Thursday, September 9, 2010 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.com Green efforts should include students E very day approximately 2,100 students dine at the Heritage Commons. However, in the brief moments between assembling a tray of food, wolfing down the meal, and dumping the trash and dishes on a mechanical belt, students overlook the steps the U takes to keep the meal sustainable, as well as the negative effects of their blissful ignorance. Being a truly sustainable campus would involve students in environmentally friendly practices, rather than simply taking care of the process for them. According to Matthew Seare, the production manager at the HC, approximately "200 to 300 pounds of uneaten food" are thrown out every day. Seare said, "the largest part of our waste is uneaten food thrown away." This is an unfortunate reflection on both our school and society. The average human needs approximately 66o pounds of food to eat in one year, according to Matt McConeghy of Johnson and Wales University. Frankly, it is disgusting that students can squander a year's supply of food for a person nearly every two days. Fortunately, the U takes several significant steps to reduce waste at the HC. It uses only reusable cups, plates, trays and silverware. According to Seare, the chefs cook all the dishes as they are needed in small batches to lessen the total impact. Also, the dining services deserve accolades for continuing to improve their facilities. Plans are in the works to compost the majority of the HC's food scraps, which would help bring the facility closer to zero waste and bolster the U's two fledgling gardens. The U is doing a great deal to keep campus sustainable. However, these processes should not be something that are done for students without their involvement. Under current procedures, students are like spoiled children with concerned, controlling parents, rather than engaged, caring individuals. The LOGAN FROERER StaffWriter U should include students in sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Modifications in the dining areas would be one of the easiest and best places to start. One of the principal ways to do this would be to make a consolidated area where students help manage their waste. Rather than throwing trays, uneaten food and garbage on a conveyor belt, there should be an area where students are involved in sorting these materials. When I briefly visited the University of Oregon, I noted that its dining halls have central disposal locations, with separate bins for compostable materials, recyclable materialsa and true garbage. Above these are clear signs telling exactly what materials can go into which bins, and students are responsible for sorting the materials. Stations like these could be set up in the HC, as well as other dining locations such as the Union, where recycling bins are spread out and poorly utilized. Adopting this system would benefit both students and the U itself. Students would become more conscious of the damage of their daily routine and learn simple ways to lessen their impact. Taking the time to sort their rubbish would help them see the error of their ways. These benefits would pay off throughout students lives as the experience and knowledge would lead them to more environmentally friendly lifestyles. For the U, involving students would help improve the bottom line. If the garbage was sorted by students, the kitchen staff would have a much easier time sorting and washing the dishes. Any waste reduction from student awareness would also improve profit margins and let the U spend money elsewhere instead of on squandered food. Adopting this simple procedure of involving students is clearly no panacea for American wastefulness or environmental problems, that will require large scale systemic and lifestyle changes. However, such a simple, inexpensive, beneficial change has no reason to be opposed and would be a small step toward creating support for the large scale movement that must inevitably take place. letters@chronicle.utah.edu The HC throws away enough food to feed a person for a year every two days! WILLUS BRANHAM/The Daily Utah Chronicle Teacher evaluations aren't constructive tudent evaluations are instrumental to decisions about retention, promotion and tenure (RPT). Several issues that have nothing to do with an instructor's performance factor into a student's evaluation of a teacher. Evaluating instructors based on unrelated factors is not in students' interests. Simply put, student-teacher evaluations shouldn't be used. Several non-related factors—vindictiveness, lack of commitment, personality clash—enter into a student's reflections about the class. "Student opinion should be weighed in RPT decisions, but not overly so," said Emma Gross, a professor at the College of Social Work. "My reason for this is that in my experi- S Roughly 50 percent of itudents comment on the teacher-student evaluations at the end of the semester. JON BULLEN StaffWriter ence student evaluations have more to do with feelings and emotions than with cogent reasoning." This is where I get off the boat. Not that I don't completely agree—my reaction is just less affectionate. I think evaluations are a forum for students to vent their anger and frustration. Yet for this same reason, I feel they are vacuous. "I don't mind that emotions count," Gross said. There is a premise implicit in both of our philosophies: less emphasis should be put on student-teacher evaluations, and that, as Gross said, is "evidence of teaching and learning effectiveness is a truer measure of an instructor's value since the impact is more lasting." The feedback given by students in their teacher-evaluations is not accompanied with any data about student performance such as inquiry into the material, attendance and completion of assignments. The uptake for a well-rounded perspective of what's going on is minimal, because there is no background of information taken into account for student quibbles to be grounded. The system for evaluating teachers is bringing about a population of instructors that please rather than educate. This prioritizes student self-perpetuation over student-development. Teachers who learn how increasingly important their students' reflections are on them are giving them what most students want: less work, and less responsibility. The goal of education is about self-development and self-perpetuation. Education is becoming less and less mutually exclusive. "I think it varies on the instructor, depending on whether the students have had a good experience, or a bad one," said Jill Hinckley, office assistant for The Urban Institute For Teacher Education. Hinckley said that about 5o percent of students actually comment on student-teacher evaluations. "That number is actually pretty high, but I'm not sure," she said. I was surprised to hear a number that high. When asked to what degree student-evaluations have an impact on a teacher's RPT, she declined to respond. Education is the characteristic quality of students. The purpose of the U is to educate. Student evaluations seem to debar teachers from doing what they feel is in the best interest of students' education. Instead, teachers are more inclined to marshal a student-friendly curriculum, which only perpetuates bad habits for students. Therefore student evaluations ought not to be used in RPT. letters@ chronicle.utah.edu Unfriendly behavior a social norm StaffWriter ames walks into class, finds a good, open area of the room, seats himself and waits patiently for the professor to begin his lecture. Silence is the code as the rest of the class files in, takes their seats and waits quietly for class to begin. But why do we fail to acknowledge those around us? This norm is found throughout campus. On buses, in lecture halls, waiting in hallways, students seem content to revel in their own introspection, rarely reaching out to strangers. Granted, I suppose our mothers did tell us throughout our lives not to talk to strangers, but in this rebellious stage of life, we can throw that rule out the window. It's a sad state of affairs that we feel the need to be so holed up in our own realities. Oscar Zabala, one of the campus shuttle drivers, commented on how when he first got his job, "it was cool to see how the students interacted, how often they did meet and make friends, especially on the first week." He went on to add, "After the first week though, it gets pretty quiet." Victor Valdez, another driver, said, "Unless they have a class together or know each other, they're not too talkative." Once upon a time, people loved meeting and talking to strangers. However, that seems a lost art today. There certainly are quite a few people attending this university. You never know, the person sitting next to you on the bus might be an ax murderer. Much of the time, it's probably just what people might think that scares us. It's a valid concern; mean thoughts are said to cause 32 percent of deaths worldwide—second only to evil glares. To put this to the test, I performed a small experiment. I did the unthinkable and tried introducing myself to some of the strangers around me in lecture halls and on the bus and made a remarkable discovery. The vast majority, probably 90 percent, in a small sample, responded not just politely, but in a positive way. Beyond mere one-word answers representative of, "I'm being polite, but I really don't want to talk to you," the majority of people seemed just as pleased and eager to make a new friend as I was. Granted, a few girls probably thought I was hitting on them, and there were probably a couple of people who were thinking "this guy is kinda weird," but the result was overwhelmingly positive. The other important factor is the double importance of making friends in class. Meeting people in class has the academic benefits of having a contemporary to struggle through homework with and bounce essay ideas off. Making friends with the smartest person in the class has always been a good idea, one that I studiously follow myself, but that's beside the point. The point is to not stop there, but continue meeting people, and making friends not only provides lifelines to call upon when crushed under the weight of homework, but also provides a network of support and excitement when attending class, a shoulder to cry on at the posting of test results, someone to get notes from, and the occasional romantic interlude. The fact is that we live in a social world, and the majority of students have the same worries, concerns and excitements. By reaching out to those around us, we benefit, they benefit, good karma abounds, and really, the world's just a happier place. Go ahead, try it. Say "hi" to that person on the bus. j letters@chronicle.utah.edu Follow us on Twitter! tw fitte r. co-rn/TheChrcrny |
