Going Green

Going Green
When approached by Dr. Beedle to come up with an idea for going green at the gulf coast campus of University of Southern Mississippi, we brainstormed and came up with the following idea. The entrance to the university from highway 90 is plain and messy since hurricane Katrina tore out the landscaping and buildings. Our idea is to re-plant some small but pretty plants around the entrance and keep the strip of median and beach cleaned up with a once a month clean-up day.
We found out from Bryan Billings (865-4536) that the main entrance was sacrificed by the college in order to get the red light at the current entrance. Any project like this would need to be put on hold as far as the planting until the road, Beach Park Place, is resurfaced. The city of Long Beach (863-1556) said that this road was top priority to be reworked but that they are waiting on FEMA to do the work. Knowing how FEMA operates, I would not recommend planting anything that might be damaged in the road work. As far as the beach and median cleanup go, the Harrison County Sand Department (896-0055) has no problem with it unless it is over 50 people. If more than that show up a permit would be needed. MDOT doesn’t care if we pick up the median as long as safety procedures are observed. Sheila White (865-4574) at The Office of Public Relations and Marketing thinks it is a great idea and would love to do some publicity on the project should it be done. David Taylor (214-3479) at The Physical Plant and Landscape Personnel Melissa Brann think the idea is a good one: but only if we use plants that will not grow tall enough to obscure the traffics view, and nothing that needs lots of watering because there is no water source out that far on campus. The landscape person, Melissa Brann would need to be consulted about the types of plants and design ideas. She said she likes the idea and would be glad to help out any way she can. She recommended miniature azaleas called gumpoe. They come in many beautiful colors and some of the newer versions bloom for three seasons. We checked with a local greenhouse and asked what types of plants would be hardy in sandy soil and still have the colors to beautify the entrance way to the college. The nursery worker gave us a few options and even a range of current prices to help us plan the cost of the project. The nursery lady felt that blooming bushes would be good for the area and add some needed color to the entrance. The taller bushes would need to be planted farther back away from the highway so as not to obstruct the view. Some examples and their current costs are: hydrangea-$8.00 to $15.00; lilac bushes-$20.00; dogwood shrubs-$8.95 to $39.95; holly shrubs-$16.95 to $ 30.00; and day lilies-$8.95 to $20.00.
We talked to Larry Lee (Larry.Lee@usm.edu) the Eco-rep for the college. He said the project sounded great to him, and recommended we call and find out about financing for such a project. We called Syd Conner (601-266-4119) who is the head of Sponsored Programs of Administrations (SPA). He told us to check out the following websites for any grant money that might be available. http://www.aascu.org/grc/resources/FundingGuides/sustainability.html and
http://www.aascu.org/gsmodule/ . Both of these websites need a password and code that we didn’t have at home so we could not check it out. Sustainability funding might be available but Mr. Conner did not sound encouraging about there being any funding available at this time.
We contacted Jack Covaroubis (865-4589) at the College of Arts and Letters because he is the faculty adviser for the student government. The president of the student government is Pamela Lizana but no one knows her contact information. We did talk to Justin Miller (Justin.Miller@usm.edu) who is a grad student in political science and government, that actually does most of the student government business. He is hard to contact but willing to discuss the project with whoever starts it. The student government is in the middle of a turn over right now and they meet every other Friday. The next meeting is Friday, February 20. Mrs. Ann Billings (865-4545) with Student Services is compiling a list of different groups or organizations on campus but has not completed the list as of yet. We did find out that the Ecology Club is no longer active.
Everyone thinks this is a great idea and we have their full support if we choose to go ahead with it. Hopefully the student government will take on this project when they get finished with their reorganization.
Plan projected by: Anita Huckabee and Ashley Tiblier