Photo by Sean Keenan | The Signal
At the university’s first ever State of the Student Body address, Student Government Association (SGA) President Sebastian Parra revealed that Georgia State has been selected to host a conference of chats addressing issues of environmental sustainability.
After a competitive bidding process with Georgia College and State University (GCSU), Georgia State won the opportunity to host the Presidential Leadership Summit on its campus April 6.
The summit initiative was brought forth by the National Campus Leadership Council (NCLC), a panel of more than 300 student body presidents from around the nation. The NCLC meets regularly to discuss critical issues, such as college affordability, mental health and sexual assault, by drafting policies and investing in new programs and running awareness campaigns.
Georgia State was granted $500 by the Council to help host one of five national summits, which will focus on increasing college sustainability initiatives.
Parra said Georgia State has devised an agenda for the one-day regional conference, which he hopes will help set the stage for a sustainability parley between students and experts.
Georgia State’s agenda for the conference was included in the application the school sent to the Council, authored in tandem with SGA Sen. Justin Brightharp and Georgia State Neuroscience Professor Dr. Michael Black.
Brightharp, who’s pushing SGA legislation to further sustainability efforts on campus, said experts on environmental and financial sustainability will be in attendance at the conference to shoot the breeze with interested students.
“The agenda includes a panel of university officials and students from the Atlanta University Center, Emory University and Georgia Tech, as well as business and government officials from the CDC, EPA, Coca-Cola and UPS. Representatives will be open to brainstorming and questions from the students,” he said.
During SGA’s State of the Student Body, Brightharp, a member of the university’s Sustainable Energy Tribe, defined sustainability as “the progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.”
“The idea is to have a dialogue among students, because a lot of them don’t know this universal definition of sustainability,” Brightharp said, “The academics talk about climate change, but do not know how to communicate it to people in a way that they will understand it, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Brightharp said they are expecting support from the student body as well as the Atlanta community, as it has been highly involved in sustainability efforts.
In December 2015, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed attended the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, France. During which, Reed and a congregation of city leaders from around the globe discussed ways to curb climate damage and endorse sustainability efforts.
“Atlanta’s presence at the COP21 Paris climate meetings demonstrates our commitment to local action” Reed said in a press release.
Reed has already initiated that companies within the city of Atlanta keep track of their carbon footprint, as well as joined the nationwide Better Buildings Challenge, aimed to lower energy consumption of companies.
Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield, the mayor’s director of sustainability has been spearheading the city’s “green” initiatives and implementing the mayor’s proposals.
After the Paris talks, Stuckey-Benfield said, the city effected a number of new sustainability projects. One of which, SolarAtlanta, aims to power 28 municipal buildings with sun-fueled hardware.
“The office of sustainability is very pleased to upgrade from a Certified Silver Green Community to a Certified Gold Green Community ” she said.
It only makes sense for Georgia State to be in the forefront of the conversation, President Parra said, being a research institution in the “middle of a global, international city.”
After all, Brightharp added, the primary concern is making sure the students understand the issue of climate change and get involved in efforts already initiated around them.
The summit is only one of the few plans SGA has in store for the future, according to Parra. Between them, the creation of a Panther survival kit, to be distributed during exam period, and the Panther Bucket List app.
The president also reiterated SGA’s previous semester’s accomplishments, mentioning the Burning Bright campaign, the claiming of Turner Field, as well as the victory against Georgia Southern.
“Now we know who the real GSU is,” he said.
The City of Atlanta is spending huge sums on a problem that doesn’t exist. Global warming caused by carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is shown to be negligible by data going back hundreds of thousands of years. The mayor is spending tax dollars on having businesses collect energy consumption data and giving this to the city. The Mayor went to Paris for the 2015 COP-15 December 2015, numerous trips around the country to tell about his tax-dollar wasting activities,and installing 2 Megawatts of solar panels on 28 city buildings that produce electricity at a greater cost than available from Georgia Power. He has just had 100 electric car charging stations put on paid parking lots at the Atlanta airport. These stations will not be used like the Atlanta Trolley systems that wasted over $100 million tax dollars.
The country is going broke with $20 trillion national debt and with more people like Mayor Reed and his followers the country will go bankrupt faster.