[Bgsa] UCR Commons

[Sharon Coe]

Hi everyone,

Tonight we had another Commons Board of Governors meeting and
I brought up several issues raised by Biology grad students.
Here is info back:

1. Recycling--basically, Dining Services is collecting
cardboard and this may or may not be recycled. They are also
investigating taking excess food that would be thrown out to
local livestock lots instead of throwing it away. Composting
is not an option due to the lack of space on campus to do the
composting. The other rooms at the Commons have recycling
collection sites, but the materials aren't actually being
recycled! This is due to the fact that the campus currently
doesn't have an overall recycling plan! Apparently in the
past, recycling efforts were coordinated with someone at
Physical Plant who seems to no longer be around. ???? This is
all a bit strange in light of the fact that Physical Plant
told Bre that they own the recycling! Yet it doesn't sound
like they are doing anything with it. There is an undergrad on
the Board who is interested in recycling and knows a campus
group trying to get things to happen, so if you are
interested, let me know and I can try to put the relevant
parties together.

2. Mailing services--Mailing services are available still at
ASUCR but no other cheaper services are planned at the moment.
The stamp machine that was around campus was taken back by the
US Postal Service because it wasn't getting enough use. There
is a possibility it could be returned and put in a higher
traffic area.

3. Coffee truck--The coffee truck broke down and will
hopefully be back in a few weeks. In the meantime, a coffee
stand will be on Floor 1 of Commons, but it won't offer
espresso b/c this requires equipment that can't be put into a
stand of this type. 

4. "Lack of services at our Commons relative to other
campuses"--the staff working on the Commons recognizes that
before Phase 2 is complete (Jan 2009), things are "going to be
worse than they were before the new Commons." Phase 2 will
have a lot more services available (what kind I am not sure).
There will be a survey sent out to students where they can
respond about what they want Phase 2 services to include,
including better coffee station and photocopy services.

5. Night hours for dining at Commons--hopefully by Feb 19, the
pizza place will start remaining open until 8pm. They also
hope that they can get Panda Express to do the same. The Panda
Express and Sub Station are currently open until 6pm.
Hopefully by March 1, Sub Station will be open on Saturday's.

Again, if you want me to raise any questions, suggestions, or
complaints, please let me know. We meet again in a few weeks
and I am happy to make these items get on the agenda.

Sharon
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Sharon Coe
PhD Candidate
Department of Biology
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521

http://www.biology.ucr.edu/people/grad_students/coe.html

sharon.coe at ucr.edu
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