Greens seek new VSA Policy on bottled water

On Sunday, April 24, as part of its Tap That initiative, the Vassar Greens proposed a policy to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council, which would ban VSA organizations from buying bottled water for their events with VSA funds.

The proposal capped off Earth Week, hosted by The Vassar Greens. One of Earth Week's most notable events was the Water Forum last Thursday, hosted in the All Campus Dining Center, featuring Professor of Economics Paul Ruud, Associate Professor of Geography Joe Nevins, Professor of Anthropology and Director of Asian Studies Martha Kaplan, Jillian Guenther '13 and Liz Jones '11. Tap That's campaign coordinator Eliza Gercke '13 said that this event, along with an editorial piece in the 4.21.11 issue of The Miscellany News last week, "were specific tactics to gain support in the lead-up to the VSA proposal." In addition, the Greens have subsidized the price of reusable water bottles for students this semester, selling more than 150 by tabling twice weekly since February; received almost 400 pledges from people to use water fountains, use reusable water bottles and to stop drinking bottled water; and posted water facts all around campus, to name just a few actions.

The proposal itself creates an VSA policy about expenditure, which in its current draft reads, "VSA money cannot be used to purchase bottled water under any circumstances. Tap water is to be used at all events where water is needed." The Greens believe that bottled water is a waste of student money, is detrimental to the environment, undermines public water supplies and harms the source communities. In their proposal to the VSA, the Greens included some interesting statistics. For example, Bottled water is 10,000 times more expensive then tap water. A Vassar study completed as a class project showed that water at Vassar is just as safe, by EPA standards, as bottled water. In addition, only one in five bottles are recycled, which means three billion pounds of additional waste are sent to land fills each year.

In order to achieve this change with as few problems as possible, the Greens plan to work with the Campus Activities Office to purchase more water coolers that can be filled with tap water for student organizations to use, as well as continue to provide students with subsidized reusable water bottles. The Greens firmly believe that the proposal will reduce financial waste and strengthen Vassar's commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

When asked about opposition to the proposal, Gercke stated, "Though we've heard of a few disapprovals through the grapevine, we have not faced any strong opposition to any of our work so far. But to be transparent, we are ultimately working toward eventually banning all bottled water on campus," she said. "And we do anticipate some stronger opposition from the administration and likely students as well, so this may not come into fruition anytime terribly soon." One of the biggest users of bottled water for campus events is Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE). At large campus event, such as a ViCE concert, can spend up to $75 on bottled water. In their proposal presentation, the Greens cited ViCE support, Director of ViCE quoting Allie St. Jules, who said, "ViCE completely supports the bottled water policy, and we would love to work with the Greens and/or Campus Activities Office on finding more sustainable ways to provide water during the setup/breakdown of our events."

The Greens' main concern is gaining support and educating the campus. As Gercke said, "It is very important to us to gain support from those who will be affected before implementing anything, so we are trying to educate people on the issue as much as possible so they understand why we are doing what we are doing. We hope that if this new VSA policy is implemented, people will see an example being set by their student government, and be given the chance to see how easy it is to function without bottled water—and we will continue to work to make it ever-easier." Greens member and speaker at the Water Forum Guenther echoed this sentiment. "We are really excited to have the whole campus know about (and support!) what we're trying to do," she wrote in an emailed statement.

So far, there seems to be a large amount of VSA approval. The Operations and Finance Committees had a joint meeting on Monday to edit the proposal, and came up with the provision that the only occasion where bottled water might be acceptable would be if it were written into a previously existing contract, such as that of a band ViCE was hosting. Regarding this provision, Gercke responded, "Even in that instance, we would ask if it were really necessary and see if we could negotiate a way around it."

The VSA Council will vote on the policy in its next meeting.