feature story

It’s a green world right now. Everywhere one turns there is an ad or product labeled as ‘environmentally friendly’ or somehow related protecting or saving the environment. Being green is now a trend in which everyone desires to partake in, whether it is to actually help the environment or simply to follow the trend.
With this current phenomenon of saving the planet with ‘greener’ purchases, the actual practices like recycling that aide the planet the most are ignored. Recycling is an integral part of conserving natural resources and is extremely simple process. It is especially easy here on Wittenberg’s campus, where it is only a matter of placing the object in the correct bin.
On campus there are recycling bins next to every trashcan inside the buildings so students, faculty, and staff simply have to place the put the recyclable item in the blue bin. With such a simple process that takes no more effort than throwing away the item, yet for some reason it isn’t followed but rather bottles and papers are frequently still found in the trash bins.
So while the current trend is to become ‘green’ actual practices that help the earth aren’t followed. Though this problem is easy to spot on a college campus, the mentality is the same everywhere. At the University of Nebraska Medical Center, they claim that 90 percent of the trash thrown away on campus can be recycled. That is a high number but not far off from the average of what most landfill companies estimate around 70 percent of all trash can be recycled.
According to the Green Wittenberg program on campus that initiated the recycling program here beginning in 2008, the amount recycled is extremely low in comparison to amount that can be recycled. In 2008, Wittenberg recycled 8.3 percent and in the 2009 the number increased slightly to 9.5 percent. These figures are produced by the company Waste Management, who picks up the campus trash and recycling.
Wittenberg recycles less than 10 percent of its trash when anywhere from 70-90 percent of the trash can actually be recycled. For some reason there is a road block on Wittenberg’s campus when comes to recycling.
When asked about this road block, Dr. Incorvati a professor at Wittenberg and the catalyst behind the recycling program said, “It may be the teacher in me that wants to trace the issue back to lack of understanding. Some folks probably don't see that there's really a whole lot of significance in putting waste in one bin as opposed to another. ”

Looney Rough Draft

Carl Looney has served his community nearly all his life, starting at the age of 18. Working with the Clark County Sherriff’s Department for 30 years and serving in every department, Looney now holds the position of Chief of Police and Security for Wittenberg University. Though Wittenberg is a small campus with less than 2,000 students, Looney oversees 13 fulltime officers.

The relationship between students and police on campus has been the “us against them” mentality for some time now and is something Looney wants to change. “I don’t want it to be us against them,” he said.

Students are skeptical of police and their intentions when they see them around campus, especially during the later hours, but Looney assured us that their intentions are to simply look out for the students. Officers “aren’t trying to ‘get’ the students but rather find the element that doesn’t belong,” said Looney. That element he specified isn’t just ‘townies’ or local people from Springfield but also students who prey upon other students. According to the Crime Report produced by the police and security office at Wittenberg a majority of crime is committed in dorms in which non- students do not have access.

Frequently Looney spoke of taking a proactive approach to prevent those “elements” from taking advantage of the students. This proactive approach has yielded results according to the Crime Report. Burglaries on campus decreased significantly from 29 crimes in 2006 to 19 in 2008.

The Crime Report also indicated the alcohol infractions are the biggest problem Looney encounters here at Wittenberg. The number of incidents of alcohol infractions has decreased significantly. In 2006 there were 210 infractions and then in 2008 there were a reported 106. The number of cases cut in half in only two years. Whether this is due the proactive approach from Looney or the attitude of the students is unknown but the numbers indicate a change on campus.

High visibility on campus is another approach Looney reported as a contributing factor to the reduced numbers on the crime report. He believes that just being seen on campus is a big deterrent for crime.

Looney doesn’t just consider cruisers patrolling campus as visibility but also wants his officers to mingle with the students. He gives his officers vouchers to eat with the students so that the officers have a chance to see the students in a different light and vice versa.