Festival shows students, staff how to recycle: The annual Energy Extravaganza featured booths on conservation

Published in the Columbia Missourian

How much energy do you use? MU's Energy Management staff wants you to think about it.
The department held its seventh annual Energy Extravaganza on Wednesday in MU's Lowry Mall. The goal was to inform students, faculty and staff about how conserving energy can improve the environment.

"If we save energy, we save the environment," said event coordinator Leilani Haywood.

A number of environmental organizations set up booths and displays showcasing environmentally aware technologies, some of which are still in development. Steve Trokey, an MU sophomore, said the displays were informative. "I found lots of information that's not information you'd find every day," said Trokey, who spent about an hour at the five-hour event. "There are more uses for solar than I thought."

Trokey said he normally shuts off lights when he leaves a room and turns off the faucet when brushing his teeth. He said everyone can take care of the environment.

The Center for Sustainable Living's booth displayed the solar Nash Doll House, a model of how homes can be retrofitted to improve sustainability and conserve resources.

Nancy Boon, who attended the fair, lives in a passive-solar house. She said her annual heating bill is about $60 to $70 - the cost of half a cord of wood, which she burns to heat her home.

Boon, an architectural drafter at the university, built the house in 1983 to take
advantage of the environmental and economic opportunities of solar housing. She uses her window air conditioner three or four days a year. The house is warm during the day, she said, but cools rapidly at sundown.

"When it's hot and sticky outside, it's hot and sticky inside," she said. "But I work during the day, so when I get home it's cooled off."

A wall of windows on a brick wall store the sun's energy and radiate it back to the house, heating the interior.

"It's perfect," Boon said.

Another way to save energy and resources is recycling, said members of the MU Recycling Committee. Students, staff and faculty can bring materials from home to campus recycling facilities.

In addition to in-building recycling containers for paper, there are bulk recycling containers at the corner of Virginia and Lake streets, near Pershing and Defoe halls on the MU campus. The bins are for glass, cans, corrugated cardboard, news papers, magazines and brown paper bags.
University employees can complete the recycling cycle. University General Stores stock a variety of common products made from recycled materials, including notebooks, index cards, envelopes, binders, computer printer paper and toilet paper.

FOR INFORMATION
The MU Recycling Committee can be reached at 882-5054. The Energy Management office is at 417 S. Fifth St. and can be reached at 882-3094. Peaceworks and the Center for Sustainable Living can be found at 804C E. Broadway, by e-mailing sustlvng @mail.coin. missouri.edu or by calling 875-0539.

Hickman seniors commended: Nine students are eligible for National Merit Scholarships, and 18 were named semifinalists

Published in the Columbia Missourian

Twenty-seven Hickman High School seniors have been honored with national commendations. Nine are National Merit semifinalists, eligible for college scholarship awards from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Hickman also has 18 National Merit commended students not eligible for National Merit money but who hold Letters of Commendation. The letters were earned by only 35,000 high school seniors nationwide.

Semifinalists are: Matthew Arthur, Aimee Blanchard, Michael Dixon, Ian Harrison, Erin McElroy, Angela Paneck, Ben Parks, Andrew Riskin, and Prashant Velagaleti. They are members of a group of about 15,000 students nationwide. Ninety percent of semifinalists become finalists by fulfilling additional requirements. Half of the finalists will earn the National Merit Scholar designation. Scholarship winners will be announced beginning April 1998.

Hickman's Commended Students are: Sabri Benachour, Phillip Coleman, Lindsey Erickson, Erin Gallagher, Justin Gerke, Elizabeth Havey, Nahyoung Lee, Naichang Li, Paul Lightner, Travis Linneman, Christina Losapio, Joel Miller, Andrew Misfeldt, Morgan Smith, Bruce Troyke, Wesley Walker, Lindley Wall and Megan Williams. "We're really pleased with the achievement of our students," said Bragg Stanley, Hickman's Director of Guidance.

More than 1 million high school students nationwide participated in this year's Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year of high school.

High school students interested in participating in the PSAT/NMSQT program can find more information at their high schools' guidance offices.