 |
|
|
Student Greenhouse Project inches toward reality by Diane Ivey
Michigan State University could be green all year round, as the Student Greenhouse Project lays the groundwork for a new biodome after nearly 10 years of research and preparation. Members of the non-profit organization are working to raise awareness for the greenhouse and its eco-friendly goals, especially as a feasibility study, the final stage of planning, is near completion. Events Coordinator Jerry Roll said the students plan to join with other environmental groups on campus for Green Week, a week of environmentalism on campus in mid-February. “We hope Green Week will be a great success,” Roll said. “We’re planning on having events such as plant potting, model building and Native American drum circles.” Roll plans to build a model of the prospective greenhouse in the MSU Union as early as Nov. 8 to build support for the project. According to Roll, there is one model already in existence, which can be disassembled and then re-built to show the process of constructing a greenhouse. Another model, Roll said, will be on display at the East Lansing’ Green River Café, a restaurant specializing in organic foods. The greenhouse, a 60-foot structure, will include two waterfalls, trees high enough to create a forest canopy, ponds, a performance area for student groups, a study lounge with wireless internet and a canyon bridge overlooking the lower level. It could be rented out for weddings, fundraisers or student events as a method of self-sustainability, or as a way for the project to pay for itself. The greenhouse’s greatest asset its ability to truly belong to MSU students, said Student Greenhouse Project Chair Nicci Kashani. “The greenhouse will be for students, by students and maintained through students.” Kashani, a Japanese and interior design senior, said. According to Director Phillip Lamoreux of the MSU Psychology Department, who has been with the project since its early days, students have raised over $18,000 for the greenhouse. “Most of our money comes from private donations,” Lamoreux said. “It’s from people who are enthusiastic about the old greenhouse and want to continue supporting the environment.” The Student Greenhouse project began in 1998, after the original greenhouse on campus, a 2,000 square foot area near the Old Horticulture building, was torn down. Kashani said that although the building itself needed to be renovated, many missed the year-round benefits of the greenhouse. The project was a reaction to the destruction of the old greenhouse, and was embraced by MSU’s 2020 Vision Master Plan, an initiative to change the Shaw Lane area of campus into a more environmentally friendly place. The new greenhouse would be built either at the location of the old one, or on one of the parking lots on Shaw Lane that the 2020 Plan would remove. Kashani said the feasibility study is the final, crucial step in a process that started over eight years ago. The feasibility study will be completed in spring 2007, according to Research Coordinator Steve Pierce. Pierce’s study focuses on who will fund the greenhouse, what features will be inside and how the greenhouse contributes to the MSU community. “The greenhouse has immense value to the university community and the local community, the feasibility study has to outline this,” Pierce said. According to Pierce, the study will be presented to MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon by the end of the academic year, and if Simon approves the research, she will bring it to the attention of the MSU Board of Trustees, who will OK funding for the project. “The study outlines who has a stake in what happens for each part of the greenhouse’s production,” Pierce said. “The greenhouse will be self-sustaining financially, and we have to show how this happens.” Kashani said the greenhouse would take only one summer to complete. The group is aiming for summer 2007, as soon as the feasibility study’s research is approved. “The feasibility study is the last major hurdle before we can begin production,” Kashani said. “The minute we’re funded, the greenhouse itself takes no time to build.” |
|
