Yesterday, Chief Operating Officer Chris Augostini held another Hoya Roundtable–this time focusing on sustainability. The roundtable was also the debut of the “Visions for a Sustainable Georgetown” report, which made a litany of recommendations in the short, medium, and long term for Georgetown to achieve its goal of cuttings its carbon footprint in half by 2020. The report is included at the end of this post, but the speakers stressed a few key initiatives, so let’s start with those.

Office of sustainability

Almost everyone and every organization present stressed the need for an office of sustainability at Georgetown. The office would be a physical and hierarchical place on campus to lead the sustainability efforts on campus. According to the report,

This office… would provide advise and support to students and administrators on sustainability projects while keeping the University on track regarding the Climate Action Plan. The office would also work with students groups on sustainability issues and set up a sustainability review board for university operations as well as campus-wide events and initiatives.

Currently, Georgetown has one Sustainability Coordinator, Audrey Stewart, and a half-dozen eco-centered student groups, including Eco-Action, Georgetown Energy, and the GUSA cabinet position.

According to Erin Auel (COL ’14), a writer of the report, ”[Georgetown attracts] students who see their education as a purpose for good. Sustainability has to be a part of it, and that’s why we need an office of sustainability and a climate action plan.”

Moving forward, although Augostini wants to study the office’s feasibility first, he said, “The notion of creating an office makes a great deal of sense.” He hopes to have an answer as to the office’s feasibility by this spring and at the latest by the start of next year. Also, he says he would want to use the expertise of students to shape the office, and he cited the role of student investors in the investment office as an example.

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Since November, the Georgetown University Student Association has operated a SafeRides van on weekend nights. This Thursday, the humdrum experience of using SafeRides is about to get more interesting for a few unsuspecting Hoyas, as GUSA plans to launch a trial run of a Cash Cab-style game show in the SafeRides van that GUSA operates. Speaking to potential copyright issues, GUSA Vice President Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) wrote in an email to Vox, “For the time being we are technically calling it ‘Snack Cab.’”

Driven by a desire to promote collaboration between students and administrators and to encourage students to wait for the SafeRides van to show up, the “Snack Cab” will consist of Sporcle-based category questions, in which participants will have the entire duration of the journey to give as many answers as possible. Prizes will be paid for by the office of the Chief Operating Officer, Chris Augostini Prizes will be paid for with sponsorships from local businesses. Concerning the prizes, Laverriere wrote:

The prizes would be based on how many answers you got right. For example, a question could be “Name the neighborhoods in DC.” If you got all of them or nearly all of them, you get a gift card to a local business, but if you only got 2-3 you get a bottle of water.

Don’t expect to see any scandalous behavior in the videos that will eventually be published though. Any student that doesn’t want to participate will just be taken to their destination. Any students that do agree to participate will sign a waiver at the end of their journey. The next day, GUSA will follow up with the students in question to confirm that they are okay with GUSA using the footage.

Once GUSA puts together a complete show, the Office of Communications must approve it before it is released. “We don’t want to be posting any information that could be damaging to the University,” Laverriere wrote.

The program can be chalked up as a success of Augostini’s new initiative, the Hoya Roundtables. According to Laverriere, the idea emerged after a roundtable last semester. Laverriere, Special Assistant to the COO Michael Wang (MSB ’07) and GUSA senator Bridget Power (COL ’12), first brainstormed the idea, which is being test-run at the end of this week.

At 5pm today, Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson is hosting a Hoya Roundtable to discuss his departments, including Health Education Services, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, Residence Life, Student Conduct, Student Programs, Student Health Insurance, Off Campus Student Life, Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, Yates Field House, and others. Use the hashtag #hoyaroundtables to join in the conversation.