Biomedical engineering freshman Nathan Francois signs a pledgeon Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014 to conserve water as part of a larger campaign to restore 140 million gallons of water to the Colorado River. (Photo by Ethan Fichtner)An unusual event is taking place in the showers, dishwashers, laundry machines and dining halls of Barrett, the Honors College.
Since Nov. 10, some students have pledged to turn off the shower a little earlier, stuff the dishwasher full before running it and eat less meat as part of a challenge to reduce water consumption preceding one of Barrett’s largest academic lectures of the year, according to student engagement office staff who organized the pledge drive on campus.
The Honors College’s “Change the Course Challenge” is part of a larger program led by lecturer Sandra Postel, said Luke Messer, sustainability sophomore and leader of the conservation initiative within Barrett.
The Change the Course initiative, which seeks to restore 140 million gallons of water to the Colorado River Basin, has recorded nearly 90,000 pledges and in theory restored up to 80 million gallons of water. But Messer said the Student Engagement Office's outreach efforts within Barrett had only yielded 60 registered pledges as of Wednesday afternoon.
However, that number does not account for the unknown amount of students who simply used texting to sign up for the campaign, Messer said.
He said the Student Engagement Office at Barrett has been trying to get the word out for a week and a half, but with three days to go and a goal of 1,000 pledges, getting people involved has proven easier said than done.
Sam Kirk (left) and Kathleen Carroll, both Arizona State University students and employees at the Barrett student engagement office, encourage students to challenge themselves in conserving more water on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014. Their efforts are part of a larger campaign to restore 140 million gallons of water to the Colorado River Basin. (Photo by Ethan Fichtner)“It’s kind of hard to get people involved if they’re not immediately impacted,” said Messer.
Kathleen Carroll, a computer science junior and employee at the Barrett Student Engagement Office, joked that in order to accrue more pledges, their tabling events should include a bowl of candy to attract the students.
But as the humor dissipated to seriousness, Carroll said, “Humans will do things that will benefit themselves.”
However, a couple students defied that belief soon after by signing the pledge to reduce their water consumption.
Nutrition sophomore Jessie Lubold said she signed the pledge because clean drinking water is important.
"If we preserve water in other areas, it will lead to having clean drinking water for everybody," Lubold said.
Biomedical engineering freshman Nathan Francois also signed the pledge.
“Water is the most wasted resource here,” he said.
Francois said he pledged to reduce his water use because “there are places in the world where they literally have no water and we just throw it away.”
The Change the Course campaign estimates that the average American uses 2,000 gallons of water each day. The initiative states that a lot of that used water is hidden in the clothes that we wear, like the 2,900 gallons per pair of blue jeans, and the food that we eat, like the 634 gallons per hamburger.
Postel, a National Geographic Society Freshwater Fellow and founder of the Global Water Policy Project, will be speaking about global freshwater usage and solutions at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at efichtne@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @EthanMFich
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