Photo by Terra Atwood
The Student Government Association funded three water bottle filling stations, which are located in the Appleby Center (AC), Plaza Classrooms, and outside the bookstore.
This project has been in the works for the past two years. SGA President Edward Adutwum and SGA Vice President Austin Welch recognized that many students were using refillable water bottles on campus, but the water fountains were not sufficient.
SGA and the Green Team, a student group focused on environmental action, have been working together in order to encourage more students to buy and use reusable water bottles.
Adutwum and Welch discussed the process.
“SGA worked throughout the 2015-2016 school year to assure that we can get situations around campus to make it easier for students to refill their bottle and to encourage reusable bottle use; thus lessening out environmental footprint as a university,” Adutwum and Welch wrote in an email.
In November 2015, Olivia Belda, a Senate member of SGA, wrote an advocacy resolution, which was seconded by Adutwum. In March 2016, Belda wrote a funding resolution, which was seconded by Welch. According to Welch, the advocacy and funding resolutions enabled SGA to work to install water bottle refilling stations to help improve student’s contribution to sustainability on campus.
“Our plans could make headway this past fall as we are working in close collaboration with Pepperdine’s Department of Design and Construction and discovering locations that were for students,” Welch wrote.
Adutwum and Welch wrote that one of SGA’s future goals is to establish water bottle refilling stations in all of the residential areas so that students will have more access to drinking water, and influence students to buy reusable water bottles.
“These first three water bottle refilling stations were just the beginning of our plans to provide more accessible drinking water to students, as well as, in popular high traffic locations on campus,” Welch wrote.
Ellie Dennis, a former resident of the Eden House, lived in a dormitory where a water bottle refilling station was located inside the dorm. Dennis said that adding more water bottle refilling stations on campus will be very beneficial for the students.
“I used the refilling station every single day, at least five times a day,” she said. “It was perfect that it was located in my dorm because I could grab water before class and before I went to sleep. It was super convenient.”
SGA is receiving positive feedback about this project, especially from the students who are passionate about using reusable water bottles.
Junior Elizabeth Wells said she is happy to see the new reusable water bottle stations on campus.
“It is so nice to be able to go and refill my water bottle when I am running around school all day,” Wells said. “It is also nice to not have to worry about buying water bottles every week.”
According to Adutwum and Welch, SGA works to implement new ideas that will help improve the lives of the students’ or the campus as a whole.
“SGA does our very best to make sure that we listen to student concerns and find innovative ways to solve those concerns and to address any suggestions we may be given,” Welch wrote. “As a whole, students should expect new resources to make their lives easier coming from their elected student representatives.”
Adutwum and Welch hope to see more students utilize the water bottle refilling stations in the weeks and months to come.
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Follow Julianna Lauro on Twitter: @Julianna_Lauro
