A student-driven sustainability effort on Michigan State University’s (MSU) campus is garnering national attention from the Association for the Advancement in Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The AASHE is going to feature a series of student-created posters that address sustainability issues. Part of MSU’s “Vote with your Actions” campaign, the posters are well-conceived and include catchy phrases that play off former political slogans such as “I like bike,” a parody of the old “I like Ike” political slogan for Dwight Eisenhower.
The posters started as professional writing class project, but the effort took on a life of its own.
“We really didn’t have any prior knowledge or experience on the issue of sustainability on campus or the world, really,” says Chris Bell, a student who worked on the project. John Kinch, who is a Capital Gains freelancer and MSU adjunct professor, was instrumental in getting the program off the ground, as was Terry Link, director of MSU's Office of Campus Sustainability.
Once the students got their arms around what campus sustainability meant, they started creating an awareness campaign that would grab the action of 18 to 24-year-olds.
“We really wanted it to play on the election cycle that’s going on right now,” Bell says.
Other project slogans include, “Wind Power to the People” and “Make Love, Not CO2.” The posters are all around campus. The student and faculty working on the project are also working with East Lansing-based Retro Duck to create t-shirts.
Source: John Kinch, Kinch Communications
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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