Northeastern’s environmental club, the Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT) has been barred from meeting this semester and is sanctioned by the school until January, members of the group said. The club is allowed to work on school policies but cannot fundraise or participate in activities.
Director of Public Relations Renata Nyul said in a statement that HEAT violated a university policy requiring student organizations to ask for funding before signing contracts that would financially bind the university.
In an e-mail, HEAT member Alyssa Pandolfi said, “The sanction was placed on HEAT due to a contract misunderstanding between HEAT and an outside agent that violated a student organization rule.” HEAT members and Student Government Association President Ryan Fox declined to give further details.
HEAT plans to reconvene next semester, but until then, the directors say they are not holding meetings. Instead, they are sending out a weekly newsletter to keep former members updated.
“Since we are not allowed to book rooms, we decided that having general meetings would be very chaotic and ineffective,” said Executive Director Dave Charnuska.
Next semester, HEAT plans to continue the annual “Do it in the Dark” event where dorms compete against each other to reduce energy use over three weeks. Pandolfi said directors are currently meeting together to discuss hosting a solar-cooking competition and a carrotmob, which is an organized mob of consumers that bring business to socially responsible businesses.
But last week was Northeastern’s first environmental event of the school year, Sustainability Week, and although HEAT was involved before they were sanctioned, they were not formally involved once the sanctions were imposed.
Sustainability Week was planned and sponsored by the Northeastern Administration and Finance Sustainability subcommittee and Engineers Without Borders.
“We are trying to help spread the word about great events that are going on,” said Pandolfi.
Sustainability Week included a “Sustainability Forum” with a guest speaker on water issues, “Green Business Panel,” a “Green Chemistry/Toxics Use Reduction” chemistry panel, Howard Lyman, the keynote speaker who talked about food production, energy, public and environmental health, as well as two musical performances by environmentally oriented bands, a bike safety forum, and several other events during the week.
The Administration and Finance Sustainability subcommittee was organized to address sustainability issues campus-wide and facilitate coordination of oversee the various environmental groups on campus and the school’s green initiatives being developed, including Northeastern’s Climate Action Plan. Program Manager Carol Rosskam said she started work at Northeastern in January 2009 and worked with HEAT and other student groups ever since.
“I think we could improve upon our level of coordination needs work because there’s so there are already so many different groups working on different things sustainability efforts but not everyone knows what everybody else is doing. That’s partly why I was hired,” she said.
Currently, the committee Facilities Division staff, which includes some members of various Sustainability Committees on campus, is working with the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to get the new International Village residence and dining halls Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. The International Village dining facility was already certified in July 2009 as a Green Restaurant Association green dining facility.
According the USGBC, the certification is given to buildings that are designed for energy saving, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, and improved indoor environmental quality.
The only building on Northeastern’s campus that is LEED certified is Dockser Hall, which received certification in August 2009.
“There are no active plans for new buildings on campus because of the economy … No more LEED certified buildings are going to be built now because of the economy. Money is always a hardship challenge,” Rosskam said.
For its green initiatives, Northeastern was recently given a B+ grade by by the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s the College Sustainability Report Card which grades. Schools around the country are graded on administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, endowment transparency and investment priorities.
While the overall grade was higher than last year's, some categories received lower grade. Northeastern received an F grade in the endowment transparency category because the school’s endowment holdings and shareholder voting are not public.
“Some of the grades went up, a couple went down, and we’re a little disappointed in some of them, but it’s also partly the reporting agency and how it that interprets the information,” Rosskam said.
Regarding to the endowment grade, she said, “that is because of the way the endowment is set up, and that’s not going to change. We’re never going to get beyond that point.”
However, because there is room for improvement of the College Sustainability Report Card, Pandolfi said she wants the grade to keep rising.
“Of course we were all a little disappointed by the B that Northeastern received for student involvement,” Pandolfi said, “But that should be motivation for students to work harder and get more involved in what's happening on-campus in the future. There is always room for improvement, despite what the grades show.”
HEAT receives semester-long suspension
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Updated: Thursday, October 29, 2009
16 comments
Fact: All the other crew-members got pissed off at them and threw them overboard.
(I guess this is retribution for trying to force stupid foux-enviromental changes upon the rest of the university, like the "no tray in the dining room idea" or how your members sometime directly inconviences my life, like my neighbor (HEAT member) who "accidently" (B.S.) shut off all the power to my BUILDING during Do It In The Dark last year (which ruined about an hours worth of program editting). HEAT doesn't get stuff done, they do things that exert their will over others. Jerks!)
I think you mean executive board since they are the ones directly involved in this process, but anyway most student group leaders already know this. This incident just makes it seem like we don't.Even if your a new e-board member, the ideal process of planning an event is on page 38-39 of the SAF manual, and clearly states all contract related materials with the exception of the precontract should be handled by Student Activities Business Office. Also says in all capital letters on Page 39 "NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT on behalf of your organization". Also, when in doubt, contact your advisor, and if your advisor isn't contacting you, let SABO know because that means your advisors are not fullfilling their job. SABO is there for ya to take care of all legal liabilities, thus let them do their job.Quote from SABO website "It is the treasurer’s primary responsibility to follow the rules and regulations and to relay financial information to organization members." Although a bit too much to be relaying all this to members all the time, having it available to access for all e-board and members when asked for it isn't a stretch. Having just the treasurer be solely responsible for all of this though is a bad idea as this incident clearly shows. More eyes on something allows for less error.HEAT, see you again in Spring.