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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Spartan Orientation Station. My name is Kirsten. I'm a student coordinator here at the NSO office. I'm a rising third year majoring in social relations and policy. And hello, everyone.
Kirsten Driscoll:My name
Emily Hill:is Emily, and I am a rising fourth year student majoring in environmental studies and sustainability. And I am a student coordinator for the New Student Orientation Office as well as a student assistant for the Office of Sustainability. And I'll pass it over to let our guests introduce themselves. Could you both introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your role in sustainability at MSU?
Laura Young:Sure. I will kick us off. So I'm Laura Young. I work in the Office of Sustainability, which is a really, really fun role on campus. We're responsible for sort of being the overall coordinator and convener of sustainability activity on campus.
Laura Young:So some of that might involve institutional planning and reporting around sustainability goals on campus. But we also work with lots of partners, including Carla, who will introduce herself here in a moment, on student engagement programs. We advise a couple different clubs on campus. We also manage communications for sustainability activities at the university. So we'll tell you a little bit more about how you can stay informed of what's happening on campus.
Laura Young:But it's just a really, really cool role in getting to meet with lots of different students, faculty members, operational partners, and even community partners about how we can create a better,
Carla Iansiti:more sustainable MSU. Hello, everyone. My name is Carla Iansiti and I'm the Sustainability Officer for the Division of Residential Hospitality Services, formerly Student Life and Engagement. And I get to be the boots on the ground for the most part as I work a lot with the live on students that live in the residence halls. I work with a lot of students that wanna make a difference in food services or facilities, whatever that it is.
Carla Iansiti:And I work with them on being able to how to use sustainable measures in the residence halls. I work with full time staff and how we can do sustainable programs in the kitchens or the buildings, that kind of effort. And working with Laura has been amazing because she has the initiatives for what the campus is looking for, and I'm more of like a programming manager, and I can help pull those things off.
Kirsten Driscoll:Well, you guys both for joining us. How would you define sustainability for students who might not know what it is?
Laura Young:This is a really great question. I'm gonna start us off and let Carla chime in with any of the things. And so I am like Emily here, who I also got a degree in environmental science before it became the ESS degree that it is today. But within that, there are so many different ways to think about sustainability. So I'll just acknowledge that there are multiple ways to think about it.
Laura Young:But what I would say, thinking about Here We Are at MSU, is that sustainability is all about ensuring that the decisions we make today lay the foundation for a better, more resilient, brighter future for the university, as well as the world around us. And I think what's really important is that sustainability goes beyond any single initiative like recycling or energy. It's really a comprehensive approach that integrates environmental, social, and fiscal responsibility into every aspect of our operations and culture. And so it's really about being good stewards of university resources. It's about taking care of our campus and the environment, you know, the Red Cedar River, our natural areas here on campus, and also taking care of our people, you know, our students, our employees, and our communities.
Laura Young:And so, you know, thinking of all of our incoming students, we're so excited to welcome you to the Spartan family, But we also wanna make sure that we're preparing you to lead and address global challenges in whatever field or career you pursue. So that's one really, really important aspect of the work that we do thinking about sustainability is that it really does touch on any different career path. And having you all understand the impacts around environmental, social, and financial issues is really, really important.
Emily Hill:So with sustainability being so broad and all encompassing, as Laura mentioned, what kinds of sustainability programs or initiatives would you both say incoming students should know about?
Carla Iansiti:That's the fun part. Because as you're moving into MSU, it's a whole new experience, a whole new community, a whole new set friends, and understanding how campus works. So we have programs really easy to help students what to bring, what not to bring, because they're living with new community members, and they don't have to worry about packing everything. Letting them know right out of the gate that we're a green campus and we are capturing all their cardboard and all their moving materials. We help them with that kind of stuff.
Carla Iansiti:And, you know, they want they wanna learn how to do things for sustainable, but they don't really know what. And so I can bring that down to a programming level. So we have things like food donation collections from the combo exchanges from dining programs. We have volunteer opportunities that we go out to maybe the student organic farm and help plant spinach or something like that. We can help them in their residence halls with how to have sustainable events inside the halls and not create so much trash.
Carla Iansiti:The difference of those types of things. And that's where it it just kinda comes together where students may not know what to do, but these are little pieces that help them give some kind of ownership and some proud to be a Spartan things to do.
Laura Young:So I've got a question for you, Carla. Mhmm. You know, you'd mentioned things of what not to bring. Do you have any tips for our incoming students when they think about moving in on campus? Should they coordinate with roommates?
Laura Young:Because I know in my experience volunteering with you at move in, sometimes we'll find that both roommates showed up with the same item. And then it's kinda like, what do we do with this this extra thing? What what kind of tips do you have for students?
Carla Iansiti:Exactly that. Get to know who your roommate's gonna be and talk about that. You only need one TV. You know? There's a lot of things that we see, whether it was a microwave and refrigerator, television, they could even take some items and use them at the surplus store.
Carla Iansiti:They could get items like that. We find so often students are bringing items in and it's a duplication. And then sometimes I find those in the trash, which is unfortunate. And we dig those out and we take them to the surplus store. Even if you have forgotten your cables and stuff like that, we have that here.
Carla Iansiti:So the biggest thing is is coordinate. Even if you could just bring your items in, either cardboard that we can recycle or reusable bags that you can stuff under your loft or under your bed to take back with you. Because lord know, those rooms are pretty small.
Laura Young:Adding onto that, I would just say, you know, for all of our incoming students, you know, your very first day that you step in to move in on campus, there is a whole sustainable program that Carla has been leading for several, several years called Pack Up Pitchin'. So there's gonna be designated spaces where you can recycle cardboard. There are special collections for Styrofoam or polystyrene. So definitely look for those opportunities to make a difference and reduce your impact during move in and, you know, be Spartan green.
Carla Iansiti:Even if you find that you bring too much because a lot of students are maybe not sure and they get their room shipped to them, if they have too much, we will have areas set up throughout the year that we do collections for clothes, maybe some extra totes or something that you brought, or maybe when you're getting ready to move out. We also have areas to drop off items that you may wanna share with others that you don't necessarily have to take with you. Like some people have to fly in and they can't, you know, take their items home with them. So we collect that stuff as well. And it's called the Pack Up Pitch In program, and it's gonna be in fall, move in, move out.
Carla Iansiti:During spring break, we'll capture all those items and help make your stay more comfortable, and you don't have to worry about, you know, throwing everything away. We'll take care of it.
Laura Young:And lastly, I'll just say, for those of you that aren't familiar, the surplus store is this really, really cool facility on South Campus where whether it's students, you know, donating home goods and furniture and office supplies, Well, some of the offices and departments on campus also do that. And so all those materials get processed through that surplus store, and are available to purchase at the surplus store. And you can find, I will just say, some very, very cool unique MSU items, fun things to decorate your dorm with, and also secondhand gently used items that, again, if you need an extra monitor or a TV, they sell those there too. So really, really great resource for
Carla Iansiti:But you know the the great part of having, MSU is such a great campus is we have our own recycling center. So the materials that everybody throws away, we find, a revenue stream for that. So the plastics and the metals and everything recycle goes into helping fund MSU and a lot of the grounds work. So we're trying to keep this stuff out of the landfill. And if students are recycling, which every dorm has a recycling station in it, all clearly labeled to try to capture those materials.
Carla Iansiti:The same thing with the food waste. As you're dining in these dining halls, experiencing all this great stuff, we also have food waste programs that happen in the kitchen that we're collecting for either worm composting or the local composter. So even though you may not see it in front of you, just ask some questions. There's things going on all over campus so we can help students feel right at home.
Kirsten Driscoll:Absolutely. I've definitely found my share of hidden gems at the surplus store. So what's one resource that you wish more students took advantage of?
Carla Iansiti:What I would like to see is we have eco reps in the halls. I have a group of students that have been so excited about sustainability, but they really quite weren't sure about working on campus. What do they do? How can they share their passion for sustainability, but they didn't know where, what, or how? And we've created a group just a few years ago of just students that live on that are sharing sustainability messaging.
Carla Iansiti:All they are is peer educators that live in the residence halls that are helping students how to either recycle something or who to talk to. How can we volunteer? How can we not, you know, have food waste? How can we just share the great community that MSU has? So this is one of the programs that we have, and we hire every spring semester and fall semester for it.
Carla Iansiti:You have to live on. It's just a few hours a week, and we get to do all kinds of activities. Like I said, we volunteer at the Student Organic Farm. We get to go to Beale Gardens. We take tours and see all different types of facilities that we have.
Carla Iansiti:Just knowledge, just raising awareness of what we have on campus.
Laura Young:And from my perspective, I would, one, encourage everybody, you know, when you move into your residence hall, figure out who your EcoRep is, whether it's in your building or in your neighborhood, because, again, they really are those great sources of sustainability information on campus. And generally, it really is hard for me to just pick one thing because I feel like there are so many wonderful things to be proud of at MSU. We had talked a little bit about the surplus store and recycling center. We are really, really unique to have such a facility. Most universities do not have their own recycling plant on campus.
Laura Young:So at some point in your first year, there's gonna be opportunities to take tours of the recycling center. So you should absolutely take advantage of that. Another one that I think I'll put out there is MSU Bikes. So one of the best ways that I found when I was a student living on campus, just getting around was biking around campus. We have some really, really great trails that connect East and West Campus.
Laura Young:And MSU bikes, even if you aren't looking to buy or rent a bike or just get some equipment, they have self-service stations for your bicycles. They can help you learn about how to register your bike or what types of locks you should use to protect your bike. Or even just safe routes to take biking around campus and the East Lansing community. Just a really, really wonderful, resource.
Carla Iansiti:And we have storage and also in the residence halls when you bring your bike on campus that if you don't wanna take it home, you can have it secured in your residence hall during the wintertime.
Emily Hill:You both mentioned interacting with students on a day to day basis within your roles. Could you maybe share an example of an impactful student sustainability project that has been worked on in past years?
Laura Young:When you get to know campus and walk around, there are so many different examples where students have made a difference and help support future generations of Spartans to be sustainable. And I think one thing that I would just encourage everybody is there are so many opportunities to get your hands dirty and actively use our campus as a living lab. And you'll see this probably in your courses, if you participate in co curricular activities as well. There's lots and lots of opportunities. So in that vein, we have worked with lots of different partners, lots of different student groups to expand pollinator gardens on campus.
Laura Young:And so if you all get to enjoy getting some Panera over by Minskoff Pavilion in the business college, There is a whole section of pollinator gardens that were all student led projects, and that have been continued to be maintained and expanded. One of the newest additions of pollinator gardens on campus is right in front of the Natural Resources Building through Environmental Studies Students United. That club did that project. So lots of just really cool ways where students are making campus more green, supporting pollinator habitat on campus, and then oftentimes also helping manage stormwater, which is pretty cool.
Carla Iansiti:A really good example of some sustainable projects that we have is over at the Student Organic Farm that a lot of students work over, they grow a lot of food for the culinary services. So they get to see the whole closed loop system. So we have students already on campus that they're pursuing their degree in some kind of sustainable efforts, are growing food that we're serving to their peers in the residence halls. Our regular business model has been set up and it's all organized by students. We also have the Bailey Hoop House, which is another smaller farm that's out in the Brody neighborhood that students are also growing food and selling to the kitchens.
Carla Iansiti:So that way, you know, the students are using the resources and you're getting homegrown food right out of your backyard, literally. So these are really nice things we have. And the students also for the non perishable food collections, we get a lot of volunteer projects We collect it, and we're able to donate it back to the community. We collect about 6,000 pounds at the end of spring semester, and students helped me pack it up, and we were deciding where to take it to to the local community. We have our own MSU Food Bank for help students in need.
Carla Iansiti:And we have the Greater Lansing Food Bank. And it's just a win win that we can find these resources to be able to put back into the community.
Kirsten Driscoll:Absolutely. A lot of great opportunities to get involved. So what are some small actions that students can take if they don't wanna get involved on that large of a scale that can make an overall larger impact on the environment?
Carla Iansiti:Tell them to give me a call. Call Carla over at RHS. That's the fun part is that's where the Eco Reps come in. It started out just doing simple little projects. How can things to be involved?
Carla Iansiti:What can we do to make campus a better place? But I don't have a lot of time to go into it. You know, I'm working on my academic career and that's where the EcoRips come in. All we did is formalize it a little bit to help students with residents on their floors. That's the biggest community push is when the memories that you're gonna have here with students is when you're with your community and your friends.
Carla Iansiti:You're not gonna remember academic class you were in. You're gonna remember a community setting or an event that you did or something that was fun. You know, you all got together and you helped IPF when it comes to cleaning out the red Cedar. Or you went over to the surplus store and you did upcycling event for materials that were used from the kitchens or something. So it's those kind of events.
Carla Iansiti:If we can spread that word out that there always is a way for resources to be used in community settings sustainable, that's what I would take away from it. These are little things that students can do on their own time, at their own leisure, to do what they wish.
Laura Young:And for all of you, as incoming students, just really know that the little small actions you do every day really do add up. You know, there's 50,000 students that make up MSU. And so just even the simple act of turning out the lights really does make a difference. And we can see it directly at the power plant that helps power campus. One other thing that I'd shout out to everybody, you know, when you first move into your res hall, figure out where the recycling station is.
Laura Young:So that you know you're familiar with where you can take those materials. And what's really, really cool too about the recycling plant is all of the data, showing how much we're recycling diverting from the landfill, that is all publicly displayed online. And we'd be happy to provide some information of where you could go to see that.
Emily Hill:Amazing. Thank you for sharing and making us feel like we can make a difference on campus and in our greater community. To both of you, how do you see MSU sustainability efforts maybe evolving over the next few years?
Laura Young:I think it's a really exciting time. Sustainability, in my opinion, only becomes more important every day, every year, just because of all the different challenges that we're all seeing, whether it's here in East Lansing, in Michigan, and around the world. And so what I'm really excited about is we are engaging in some big picture planning work for the university about what does a sustainable campus of today and twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years from now look like, and answering some really big questions around that. So that's work that's just getting underway, and we really look forward to getting more student perspectives within that. And I think one other interesting thing that I maybe share with students is, you know, campus really is like its own city.
Laura Young:We have 50,000 students. We have about 13,000 or so employees. We have our own power plant, our own recycling plant, multiple water distribution systems, the farms that Carla was talking about. And so there's just so many opportunities for us to kind of connect the dots between all these different things, and figure out how we can embrace sustainability just as part of our core culture. And I also think technology is gonna be a big piece about this.
Laura Young:And I know Carla has some really cool work happening within her division that she wants to share.
Carla Iansiti:Yes. You know, as as you were talking, Laura, I'm thinking about some of these areas of the student organic farm. The students are our voice. The reason that we have a student organic farm was developed because students wanted that farm. The reason we have an MSU Recycling Center is because students wanted it.
Carla Iansiti:Students help us get us off coal in 2011. So the reasons that we have what we have is because these are student driving forces. They are the ones that are our future, they help us keep MSU along. So everything that we're talking about today and how wonderful it is wouldn't be without the students coming together and helping us do this. So I'm looking forward to the next decade of students doing the same thing, pushing MSU just a little bit further each time, making us a better campus and making us just world renowned and all the sustainable efforts that we have.
Carla Iansiti:But yes, I wanted to talk a little bit about the AI technology. So we have program. These are actually students from another university that had submitted an award for an AI food waste program, and they won. And now they are a company, and there's a couple of entrepreneurs. They are gonna help us identify food from the post consumer point of view.
Carla Iansiti:So when you go into a cafeteria, there's a lot of wonderful options. Take what you want, eat what you want. This AI technology is gonna be on the tray return, and it's gonna look at those plates. It's gonna see what this customer hasn't eaten. So maybe the student just took too much, or maybe the french fries are cold.
Carla Iansiti:This computer program will tell us all that by looking at that plate and telling us what food students are eating and what they're not. And there's also gonna be a kiosk there that you can talk it and you can tell it what they liked or what you didn't like or, you know, however your day was. It's gonna be a little kiosk there. By the tray return, you can talk to it and tell it how your food was. And we're hoping to use that as a way to understand our recipes a little bit better because we wanna be able to cater to each student that comes to campus we're meeting their needs and maybe not serving food that's not popular.
Carla Iansiti:So we're looking at that as a way that we can help on our food waste to help minimize the waste that we have so it's just easier to purchase food because everybody knows buying food is expensive and we wanna be as responsible as possible.
Kirsten Driscoll:Absolutely, that's a really cool program that you were talking about. That's super awesome.
Carla Iansiti:Oh, it's called Raccoon Eyes. I forgot to throw the name in there. So it's called Raccoon Eyes and cute raccoon eyes, recognize, get it there. You're gonna see it on table tents. We're putting a little mini campaign together now.
Carla Iansiti:So Stop by Acres and Landon are the two pilot areas that we're gonna run-in and we're gonna check it out.
Kirsten Driscoll:Super awesome. So how can students connect with you
Laura Young:guys if they have more questions? So I would say, number one, if you use Instagram, follow us on Instagram. Emily, who's joined us for this conversation helps maintain all of our social media. She does an awesome job of keeping everybody informed. We also have a newsletter that you can subscribe to.
Laura Young:We really try to not spam you all as students. So we send out just a monthly newsletter, but it tries to compile events and other activities that you all can get involved in, you know, for the upcoming month. And then again, I wanna plug Eco Reps. Definitely figure out who the Eco Reps are living in your res halls. So those are some of my suggestions.
Laura Young:Carla, what else do you think?
Carla Iansiti:Yeah. That's kind of the best way. You know, we do a lot of Instagram, a lot of pictures, little videos out there. We will show up wherever we can to resource fairs and help tell our story and just talk to any of your students. And I'm on the websites.
Carla Iansiti:I'm available. My name's out there. It's easy to get ahold of me.
Laura Young:Yep. And that actually got me thinking. We will be at SPARTISPATION. Hope to see you there. And then our campus sustainability partners also have social media.
Laura Young:So you can look up the surplus store has their own account. Spartan Upcycle has their own account. I believe Student Organic Farm also has their own account. So definitely check out those just different resources and those are just good ways to stay engaged.
Emily Hill:Amazing. Thank you all for answering that. Hopefully everyone can stay in touch with us and maybe join us at SPARTICEPTION in August, at the big large resource fair with all the student clubs and organizations. So lastly, our question for you is what is your favorite part about the MSU community or being a Spartan?
Laura Young:Oh, okay. Carlo's looking at me, so I'll I'll start us off. I think for me, my my favorite part of being a Spartan in my role now is maybe like twofold, in that there are so many wonderful people like Carla, that just do amazing things for MSU, for the community, that their energy, their passion for making our university, the world, a better place, I think is just really really infectious. And so it just gives me a lot of hope for the future, and just doing good work, caring for people, caring for the environment. And then within that, I know one of my favorite favorite things, at least within my role here at MSU now, is when I do get the opportunity to work with students.
Laura Young:It's just so wonderful to see student leaders come together with such great ideas, and conviction around, you know, again, just making the world a better place. And I just love that so much. And I think the real joy, and I know Carla can attest to this, is when you see students graduate and go on to do absolutely amazing, amazing, amazing things. It just really like, I don't know, it's like the best feeling ever.
Carla Iansiti:That's what I was gonna say. It's watching these students come in as a scared freshman and leave here with understanding everything, and they're just ready to take on the world. I've been able to work with students that had great ideas, and just having their energy around just keeps me going every day. And the great thing about a community like MSU is you're able to try things and push forward a little bit more than maybe the corporate world. You can try some ideas and you know who you can talk to.
Carla Iansiti:I'm not afraid to call anybody to ask questions. And I want the students to do that too. I'm trying to help them for their career as well. And watching them just blossom and come up with ideas that I wouldn't even have thought about has been just an amazing accomplishment. And then having Laura over here at the Office of Sustainability helps give me some guidance as to what direction campus wants to go because I'm the one that's more of I'm a doer, and that way I can bring the people together and bring the students together and staff together to figure out what do we want to accomplish as we can move forward in the easiest way.
Kirsten Driscoll:Wonderful. Well, thank you guys for joining us. That's gonna be all from the Spartan Orientation Station. Catch us next time. Bye.