The first set of HEIF awards is expected Saturday, March 15. The minimum award is $1,000 and up to $70,000 will be available for the first round.
The HEIF monies derive from a $10.00 per semester fee that is projected to generate about $160,000 a year. Clean energy projects will be student-driven and, where practical, carried out with strong student involvement. Faculty and staff are eligible to submit proposals when collaborating with students.
Awards will fall into two categories: HSU Implemented Projects that require changes to campus infrastructure (buildings, streets, grounds) or University policies. Execution must be managed by HSU Facilities Management or another appropriate office.
The second category is Awardee Implemented Projects—those not involving alteration of infrastructure or policy. The project is managed by the proposing group.
Conceived by undergraduates in 2002—early proponents included April Armstrong, Eddie Tanner and Michael Winkler—the HEIF initiative won overwhelming approval (86%) in the spring 2004 Associated Students elections.
Collection of the $10.00 charge was blocked at first, however, by the Chancellor’s freeze on fee hikes that year. Undeterred, student leaders such as Jeff Hinton and Jessica Lamm pressed on for HEIF’s adoption and in the spring of 2007, HSU President Rollin Richmond, a champion of the effort, stepped in to clear the way for it.
The HEIF committee has seven voting members and a number of non-voting advisory members. Students hold four of the seven voting positions. The panel is chaired by Hinton, an Environmental Resources Engineering major, and faculty, staff and plant operations are represented. The City of Arcata also has an advisory member on the committee.
Environmental Resources Engineering Professor Arne Jacobson, a voting member of the committee, said, “This innovative initiative is exciting and inspiring. Students are taking it upon themselves to do what the rest of society should be doing, taxing themselves to pay the cost of reducing the environmental impact of their energy use. The students—
as well as the entire HSU community—should be proud of their leadership on this crucial issue.”
Hinton praised student willingness to create the fund, calling the program a solid commitment to cut Humboldt State’s dependence on non-local, non-renewable energy sources. “For me, HEIF is exciting because it provides a conduit through which innovative student ideas can be heard and applied like never before,” he said.
Lamm, also a voting member, emphasized that the HEIF “encourages and supports the creative spirit of the student body to come up with positive environmental solutions.”
To ensure the fund’s integration with HSU’s overall educational objectives, the clean energy projects will stem from and be connected to course curriculum. Public outreach and educational activities will circulate information about the projects and their results and accomplishments.
Other contributors to the HEIF initiative are HSU Plant Operations Director Tim Moxon, who worked several years with students to set it up; Professor Ann Alter of the Theater, Film and Dance Department, who helped lead the writing of the Request for Proposals document; and Tall Chief Comet, Plant Operations Sustainability Coordinator and a voting member of the HEIF Committee.
For details, click on www.humboldt.edu/~heif