Welcome to CUSP!
This is a placeholder page to elminate confusion and provide a temporary description of CUSP's general purpose. The full details are to be worked out in discussion and will of course evolve with the needs of campus and the reach will extend with greater experience. To see what's going on in 2007-08, visit the wiki (login with UGCS credentials).
CUSP is the Caltech Undergraduate Sustainability Project. Students, staff, and faculty work together to raise awareness about issues of waste, consumption, and product composition and to provide solutions to related problems.
- October 2008 Welcome to a new academic year! We'll be meeting during the second week of school to set an agenda for this year. The wiki is working again; thanks, Alex and Matt.
- August 2008 The wiki is down for some time now, and now trying to be fixed. Feel free to email cusp; you'll be spamming fewer than twenty people; emphasize fewer for cusp-excom. As for a permanent record, you can also try the blog, and email people to say you've posted, or anything. We enjoy a holler, or other more sedate greeting. While the wiki is down, I'm posting a neat link to Berkeley's sustainability program. Apparently, they have the benefit of being a state school and more students, but even so students helped fund a solar power installation.
- 13 June 2008 Morgan Putnam offered to organize a tour in July of the solar installation on Holliston. On a related topic, let him know if you would like to be involved with planning this summer (soon) a student-led solar installation to occur at new student orientation in the Fall. Also, congratulations, graduating seniors.
- June 2008 Projects include resaerching cellulosic ethanol conversion from campus olive/food waste, sustainability primer, motion-sensor installation in the South Houses, and energy reduction incentive program. Congratulations to Dabney Garden for its crop first earlier this Spring. Holliston parking structure solar panel installation begins 15 June.
- Jan 2008 (ongoing) Primer to review the current state of sustainability at Caltech.
- Feb 2008 (completed with open questions) Peter Daily of CDS (Caltech Dining Services) and students organized a "pizza box" contest to compare the sustainability (as a quantity) of cardboard boxes, ceramic plates, and biodegradable boxes. Some CUSP members put together an entry which was mentioned in the 18 Feb 2008 edition of the Tech.
Started in academic year 2007-08, the early agenda includes rapid high-impact projects accross campus especially geared to encourage student involvement and bring Caltech "off the grid". By working closely with Facilities Management, CDS, the administration, and other clubs and groups great changes can be made. In the first five years of the project, goals include starting a fund and sponsoring summer research on sustainability. In ten years, goals include full monitoring of campus resources and structured review mechanisms. New buildings, facilities, and infrastructure will be designed and the old maintained with sustainability in mind.
Nicholas Fette, 23 Feb 2008.
