We are three incoming freshmen at the University of Kentucky, currently participating on the Freshman Summer Program, sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity: Center for Academic Resources and Enrichment Services. Since June 5th, 2016, the students became part of UK’s community as minorities and are transitioning to college life with the aid of peers, faculty members and staff from the University. 

 

This group is conducting research on the Sustainability of campus at the University of Kentucky, the actions conducted to reduce the ecological footprint of the university and whether these efforts are effective. Our observations about the importance of ecology on UK are shown in the amount of recycling bins, posters, bicycles and water bottle filling stations that are spread around campus. Based on recognizing the previous elements as part of the daily routine on campus, questions regarding the effectiveness of these initiatives, in matters of cost and social responsibility, started to pop-up and inspired us to look for the answers we needed in our surroundings. Eduardo and Tayte are Lexington residents and provide a point of view of from the community of Lexington from the inside. Chelina resides at Bardstown, Kentucky, and she was able to provide her standpoint as an outsider and new member of the community.

 

Eduardo wanted to know how different groups of people viewed ecology and sustainability on campus and whether they thought what was happening was effective. In the research found, he saw how different people viewed ecology in UK. He interviews Brittany Thompson, an electrical engineer at UK to find what UK has done to become more ecological, if what the have done is effective, and if they have any plans for the future.

 

Chelina focused her essay on figuring out whether the initiatives conducted on campus are or will help reduce the ecological footprint that UK generates on its environment. The researching process for her essay was based on looking and finding out the ongoing campaigns around campus, finding out about the results of these programs and getting opinions about the effectiveness of the initiatives, in order to answer her research questions. Chelina conducted an interview with Jerrod Penn, member of the Student Sustainability Council, to figure out the role that this student organization has on the development of sustainability initiatives on UK’s campus and their results.

 

Tayte chose to find out whether or not all of the sustainability programs are worth the money they receive and spend every year. In our research he noticed a lot of contrasting view points on the sustainability program as a whole. He conducted an interview on Shawnice Whittfield and Micaelah McAlpine; Shawnice is a senior here at the University of Kentucky studying Health society and population on a pre-med track and Micaela is a 5th year senior here at UK. In the interview they disagreed on multiple questions and points in the conversation alone. Overall, once having read his essay it will be shocking to find out whether or not people think the recycling energy saving, and high performance building programs are worth it.