If there’s one thing that I, a native New Englander, have learned since moving down South it’s that the people here don’t do things halfway. You don’t build largish football stadiums or make somewhat sweet tea.

This seems especially true at The University of Alabama, where you don’t mostly fill up Coleman Coliseum when gymnastics has a pink meet – you sell out more than an hour beforehand.

True, sometimes it could be argued that our school doesn’t know when enough is enough, as with the opulent luxury of freshman dorms or the sheer enormity of greek houses, but overall the University population’s extraordinary talent for grabbing onto a goal and seeing it through to the outer reaches of possibility is a rare gift. It’s a gift that can – and has – done much good, not just for the campus, but for the rest of the world as well.

I’m afraid, however, that we’re not doing as well on all fronts. In the field of environmental stewardship, Auburn, not to mention the rest of the SEC and the country, is beating us into the dust. Our recycling program is lackluster at best; I once heard another freshman say that she couldn’t find a single recycling bin in her building, and had to take all her paper and plastics to another dorm.

It’s no wonder so few UA students recycle. And I can’t have been the only one to almost go into shock upon discovering that the University’s dining halls still provide styrofoam take-out boxes, used and thrown out by the thousands daily.

Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of individuals on this campus who seem to care immensely about the future of our planet. After attending just a few meetings of the Environmental Council, and participating in barely an hour of public petitioning on behalf of a proposed Green Fund, I can say for certain that there are students among us who have invested their lives – their days, their educations and their future careers – for the good of us all. And there are many more students whose only crime seems to be apathy, or perhaps ignorance.

I say “only crime,” but apathy is damning enough. Somewhere along the line someone seems to have decided that issues of sustainability and efficiency belong to the vegans and the eco-terrorists. The environmental aspirations of the businessman, the engineer – and, yes, the vegan too – are turned into unnecessarily uphill battles by a culturally ubiquitous dismissal, and in some cases fear, of the kinds of improvements that have literally dozens of benefits and virtually no drawbacks.

Green energy solutions – even something as simple as replacing window glass – mean buying less fossil fuel, which could help balance both our financial and ecological bankbooks, at least one of which is undoubtedly in the red. Simple changes produce big results on all sides.

No one can tell me that our campus lacks the spirit or unity to keep pace with any school in the country or the world in terms of innovation and productivity, yet we lag behind even the most menial of standards. I’ve seen firsthand the intense passion our students can bring to an issue: It’s time to step up.

Lauren Pratt is a freshman majoring in anthropology.

Leading in today’s Crimson White:

[Opinion] UA’s opportunity for increased sustainability is now

[Our View] Blaming CW skirts real issue

[Letter to the Editor] Cyclists, drivers should respect rules of the road