The De Anza Student Government environmental sustainability committee’s interns proposed three committee projects at its Nov. 6 meeting.
The committee plans on taking on one of these projects for the year; past projects include the DASG bike program, getting Foothill-De Anza students the VTA SmartPass and both its “Ban The Bottle” and “Save Paper Towel” campaigns.
Allissa Lo, 20, business major and committee intern, presented a proposal for interns to help clean up either a beach or San Jose waterways; Lo said the cleanups promote environmental sustainability and healthy marine life.
“The 2020 Save the Turtles movement was inspired by a 2015 viral video of a turtle with a straw stuck to its nose,” Lo said. “Cleanups are a good way to help prevent that.”
Lo proposed that the committee would partner with The Trash Punx, a San Jose-based non-profit that hosts cleanup and recycling events; the organization would provide all materials necessary for cleanup, as well as a food stipend for volunteers, meaning this proposal would cost DASG the least.
The senate would also need to “endorse or otherwise officially support” The Trash Punx before the committee can partner with it, per the DASG Environmental Sustainability Code.
The next proposal aimed to build DIY birdhouses; its project team said it hoped to build winter nesting homes for squirrels and birds around campus.
Before sending the finance committee and DASG senate a budget request, the committee has to hammer out its logistics and how it would proceed.
“We have to talk to facilities if we were to nail the birdhouses on trees or anywhere on campus,” DASG Chair of Environmental Sustainability Myles Vongnakhone, 22, biology major, said.
The team is still considering whether to buy birdhouse kits or build the houses from scratch.
“Building from scratch is less expensive; the con is that it’s extremely dangerous,” committee intern Lisa Qian, 19, biology major, said. “It would require a liability form to handle saws and would be more time-consuming,”
A third proposal to place planters around campus would still need to consider plant maintenance, permission from administrators and facilities and procuring material costs.
Ultimately, the senate will vote on one project and pull any funds for the project from its special allocations account, with $152,441 remaining.
The committee has not outlined deadlines on voting — or starting work — on this year’s project.
