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MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015
KA LEO O HAWAI‘I: THE VOICE
NEWS
news@kaleo.org @kaleoohawaii
Noelle Fujii News Editor
Courtney Teague Associate News Editor
More water refill stations to be built on campus Sustainable UH and facilities office work together to help environment ZEBLEY FOSTER / KA LEO O HAWAI‘I
As of April 11, Sustainable UH’s moveon.org petition to ban plastic bottles on campus had 261 signatures.
BIANCA SMALLWOOD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Students can thank a student organization and campus office for the recent installations of more water refill stations throughout UH Mānoa. Mechanical engineer for UH Mānoa’s Facilities Management Office Kyle Arakaki said that his department was contacted by the student organization Sustainable UH with a recommendation to create water bottle refill stations throughout campus. “At the time, the university already had several bottle fillers on campus [Edmondson, Sinclair, Campus Center],” Arakaki said in an email. “And Facilities was considering installing several more. Facilities used the interest and momentum from the sustainable group to install bottle fillers at Saunders, Hemenway, Bilger and Watanabe.” He also said that the decision of where to place the new refill stations was based on the ability to install the appliance without having to do too many modifications to the building. REASONS BEHIND NEW STATIONS
While Sustainable UH’s suggestion did play a role in the installation of more water refill stations,
Blake Araki, past UH Mānoa director of operations and the manager of the mechanical engineering division, added that the need for repairs and desire to go green also contributed to the decision. “Timing also played a major factor in this move to install refill stations,” Araki said in an email. “As our existing water coolers failed and needed to be replaced, we replaced them with water coolers that have bottle refill provisions.” Araki further said creating more stations reduces the possibility of plastic bottles entering the waste stream and also decreases the amount of pollution one would find with the manufacturing and distributing of such items. Arakaki said the water refill stations were funded through the facilities management operating budget and are refrigerated, have a filtration system and feature a bottle counter that tells its user how many plastic bottles are not going into the landfills. HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT
According to Sustainable UH member Rachael Roehl, the group is student-governed and promotes environmental sustainability awareness. Roehl, who organized the group’s Plastic Free Week 2014 — an event held to spread aware-
ness of plastic pollution — said in an email interview that water refill stations help to reduce the use of plastic bottles and instead promotes the use of reusable containers such as the Hydro Flask, which she said is the better choice. “Fifty billion plastic bottles were thrown out in the U.S. last year, and at UH Mānoa we saved 380,878 plastic bottles from landfills by use of the water refill stations thus far,” Roehl said. “Especially in Hawai‘i where we can see the impacts of plastic pollution on our reefs and
UH Mānoa could reduce the sale of single-use plastics [especially for water] and promote bringing your own containers. Most students are willing to take a few extra steps to reduce their impact on the planet, it starts with spreading awareness.” While Arakaki said that in the future there will be more installations of water refill stations throughout campus, he said other sustainability projects have been approved, including upgrading air conditioning systems and control, and installing low water fixtures in buildings. He said
At UH Mānoa we saved 380,878 plastic bottles from landfills by use of the water refill stations thus far. – RACHAEL ROEHL SUSTAINABLE UH MEMBER
beaches, it seems that the switch to reusables should be common sense. Roehl also said that as a place of higher education, UH Mānoa has the potential to set an example for other colleges in sustainability. She said that in order for the planet to be healthy for future generations, a change needs to happen, starting with education. “I believe the first step is education and activism in environmental issues,” Roehl said. “As a campus,
that most energy savings come from these modifications. Now the director of Planning, Facilities, Capital Improvement and Land at the West O‘ahu campus, Araki said that he is working on moving the campus towards being sustainable as well. He said that the faculty, staff and students are supportive of moving West O‘ahu toward sustainability and that he plans to incorporate it in all projects.
MORE INFO
CURRENT LOCATIONS OF BOTTLE FILLERS THAT ARE ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC
BILGER HALL (1) Ground level near Mauka stairwell HEMENWAY (1) Ground level near vending machine room SAUNDERS (1) Ground level near elevators WATANABE (1) Ground level near restrooms CAMPUS CENTER (1) Across from Starbucks SINCLAIR LIBRARY (3) Near stairwell
Small graduate program gets big rankings JACQUES BRUNVIL CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Despite its small size, the Rehabilitation Counseling graduate program was rated as 24th in the nation in top online master’s in counseling programs, according to a study by GoGrad. The Building Capacity for the Evolving Field of Vocational Rehabilitation project aims to increase the number of qualified vocational rehabilitation counselors to work in state agencies and with their partners. The project also aims to provide vocational rehabilitation and independent living services to individuals with disabilities, according to a press release. With an average of 22 students in the program and 10 admitted each
year, the Rehabilitation Counseling program is one of five offered by the Kinesiology department and is currently working on ways to increase interest and enrollment into the program. “We recruit carefully and we are trying to develop a really strong curriculum that serves the needs of the community. We are flexible as far as the type of hours we work with the students so that we can work with persons after work,” said Assistant Professor and Program Director Kathryn Yamamoto. A FLEXIBLE SOLUTION
The rehabilitation counseling program is a distance education degree program which uses online course management and web-based conferences to pro-
vide better availability to students at UH Mānoa and across the country. All courses are offered in the late afternoon and evening to help serve working graduate students. Students work closely in and out of the classroom, with courses consisting of general counseling and rehabilitation along with clinical experiences throughout the community. Sharra Dubos, a graduate student studying rehabilitation counseling accredits small class sizes and diversified coursework as some of the things that make her classes enjoyable to study. “It’s a field that has a lot of need ... the emphasis of the program is to be working in the field already so there’s a lot of the information we’re getting that can be put
into practical applications for our careers and what we want to do for work,” Dubos said. WHAT’S NEXT
“We have the right people in the right places doing the right things,” said Nathan Murata, Kinesiology department and graduate chairman. The Rehabilitation Counseling program is currently working on a new logo and marketing advertisements such as brochures in hopes of attracting more students. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 the demand for practitioners and administrators in the field of vocational rehabilitation was the fastest growing in the nation. Despite this, the program of only two full-time faculty members
struggles with budget issues and hires outside help when needed. “We struggle with resource issues. Like everybody else, we’d like to get more and we don’t necessarily get it all the time but we try to make do. We’ve got a great bunch of graduate and doctoral students that help us fill in the gaps and get the classes taught,” Murata said. The program has also earned an unrelated $1 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration, with 75 percent allocated to grant funding. Currently, over 95 percent of students in the program receive grants. What do you think? Let us know @KaLeoOHawaii