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Dorms join national recycling competiton

To heighten awareness of the universiy’s waste management and recycling programs, Kent State residence halls have been participating in a recycling competition for the past four years. This spring, they decided to take the next step by launching into a national competition.

 

On Jan. 17, Kent State started competing in RecycleMania for the first time. RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and universities to promote recycling programs, as explained on its Web site.

 

 

For the next 10 weeks, residence halls will be competing nationally with 500 other colleges and universities split into two divisions: competition and benchmark.

 

“This spring, we are participating in the Benchmark Division,” said Marijean Benedik, the assistant director of Residence Services. “We decided to get our feet wet first.”

 

The Benchmark Division is less formal and does not include rankings toward winning any categories. Benedik said by next spring, the competition will be campus wide with promotional help from other departments.

 

Kent State has applied much effort to the recycling movement for the past four years. Every October, students in the dormitories have participated in an energy conservation competition and every November in a recycling competition.

 

Last semester, Ashley Falkowski, sophomore visual communication and design major, participated in the competitions.

 

“I find competitions like this to be important, especially within our wasteful society,” Falkowski said. “It may just be one small step, but at least it’s something.”

 

Participating in RecycleMania is an effort Benedik hopes will get the word out.

 

“We want to make sure we include everybody,” she said.

 

Each residence hall has recycling bins throughout. Since Portage County is a single-stream recycler, all students have to do is throw away what they know is recyclable.

 

“We don’t want it to be a hassle,” Benedik said. “We want students to be able to drop it and go.”

 

Benedik said at the end of each week, Portage County recycling trucks come and collect the recycled waste where it is then separated by hand at the Portage County Recycling Center. The collected waste gets weighed and numbers get turned in to Melanie Knowles, manager of sustainability at Kent State, Benedik said.

 

According to recyclemaniacs.com, there are five different categories RecycleMania holds competition for: The Grand Champion, Stephen K. Gaski Per Capita Classic, Waste Minimization, Gorilla Prize and Targeted Materials.

 

“With newer students coming in who are well-informed about recycling, we wanted to see how we faired this semester in the categories,” Benedik said.

 

With the first two weeks as trial weeks, Residence Services plans to get the word out.

 

“We’re learning as we go what makes it easier for students to participate,” Benedik said.

 

RecycleMania was started in February 2001 by Ed Newman and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler.

 

Contact room and board reporter Samantha Worgull at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Editor’s note: This semester, the features staff is taking a behind-the-scenes look at student jobs and activities. This part of the series examines what it takes to drive a campus bus.

By Courtney Kerrigan
Daily Kent Stater

At first glance, it may seem campus bus drivers are just the people who take students from one destination to another, but it’s the work and integrity drivers put in to their job that gets people where they’re going safely.

With two years of driving experience under their belts, PARTA drivers must go through various maneuverability training before driving with passengers.  They must be able to parallel park a bus on the right and left hand sides, back the bus up into an alley dock and weave through cones forward and backward.

They are also required to back up a bus around the turnaround at Dix Stadium on both the curbside and street-side, getting the front tire closest to the curb as possible.

While this sounds impossible, senior anthropology major August Davis, a student PARTA bus driver, assures students that anyone can do it.

“I didn’t know how to parallel park a car before I started and now I know how to parallel park a bus,” Davis said.

Davis has been driving for several semesters, and shows it well as she steers her bus effortlessly on the Summit East route.  When she reaches Dix Stadium, Davis habitually switches her destination to Front Campus via Student Center and waits about four minutes before heading out again.

The layover may frustrate riders waiting at bus stops, but because there are six Summit East buses that run between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., drivers stop for an allotted period of time to ensure they stay six minutes apart, said Richard Giles, Operations Coordinator for PARTA.

While drivers try to maintain a good distance from their fellow coworkers, it is inevitable to find a conglomerate of buses from time to time when dealing with heavy traffic or weather impairments.

Many students find trouble in balancing school and work, but PARTA allows students to choose their own schedules.  Shifts are broken up into two-hour blocks, but drivers can take more hours that are flexible for them, said Joe Yensel, Operations Manager for PARTA.

“They put together their big puzzle of classes, studying and all the other stuff they have to do and then insert work where they can,” Yensel said.

Drivers sign up in the fall and spring semesters for certain routes that are chosen by availability and seniority.

While drivers have the advantage of making their own schedules, they still have to put commitment into it.

“If you have a good basis of time management, it works out pretty well for you,” Yensel said.

Front Campus driver Brady Giles, junior managerial marketing major, works 17 hours a week and admits to having no trouble balancing school with work.

“It’s not too bad.  Most of the time I drive in the night, and get homework done in the day,” Giles said.

Unlike the Front Campus and Summit East buses, Campus Loop drivers must stop at the Ice Arena for layovers. 

Campus Loop driver Nathan Duke, junior construction management major, makes his stop to call dispatch for a layover time.  With three Campus Loop buses running until 5 p.m., Duke must wait five minutes to make sure he doesn’t catch up to another bus.

Campus Loop routes take about 20 minutes to finish one lap, depending on traffic and the number of people on the bus.

“Having a bus like Campus Loop to take you around the campus is really convenient,” said Brett Bursley, junior integrated health sciences major. “They do get crowded and can take long, but sometimes it’s better than walking.”

During training, drivers make $7.30 an hour, but once they start driving with passengers their pay increases to $7.75 an hour.  They also get raises and can be promoted to student supervisors.

Contact features correspondent Courtney Kerrigan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .