Fossil Fools Day

By Nichole Seitz
Contributing Writer

A lone table stands in the Wilkerson Dining Hall on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks. Scattered on the walls are sheets laden with facts and statistics. Handmade signs with various sayings stand on a chair, ready to be used. Students, donning their bright yellow shirts, stand waiting for the traffic that will enter the building over the lunch hour, mud pies and stone soup (made from real mud and stones) in hand.

It is easy to just walk past this setup and not even notice what is going on at the table, but UND’s Sierra Club tried not to let that happen. Almost the same second students walked in the doors of the dining hall they were approached by club members, all with the common goal of trying to bring awareness of the Climate Action Plan and the coal plant located on the college campus, as part of their Beyond Coal Campaign.

The Climate Action Plan serves as a timeline, detailing moves that the campus will make to switch to sustainable energy. This plan, which is set to be released on Monday, April 12, stems from the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment that former President Charles Kupchella signed in 2008.

Fossil Fools Day, which was held on April Fool’s Day, was aimed at thanking the school’s president, Robert Kelley, for the presumed fulfillment of the plan. The group hopes that, by thanking Kelley ahead of time, he will make the commitment to move the campus from coal energy to something that is better for the environment.

“We had this event because we want a clear statement from the university, and we think that it is kind of a spoofy, fun thing, thanking President Kelley for something that we hope he’s gonna do and we expect him to do,” said Ashley Lauth, the group’s organizer.

Group members stopped several students with the hope of getting a word in edgewise to convince them to have their picture taken. Several students agreed to hold one of the many signs with different thank-you messages scrawled on them. The pictures that were taken will be compiled in a video message, along with recorded statements from members of the club. While some may have stopped just to be nice, few stopped and took an interest in what was happening beyond having their picture taken.

“I think it is a good initiative to show that we need some other resources to use besides coal for the future. If we get enough people, I’m pretty sure the president will look into it and for sure make some changes in the future,” said UND student Kyle Rosseau. Rosseau was one of the many that stopped to have his picture taken, but he was one of the few to actually take an interest and sign a postcard that will be passed along with the video message to President Kelley.

Not all of the reactions to the group’s presence were positive. When group member Samantha Arras tried to talk to one passerby he replied “I’ve heard about you guys,” adding as he walked away, “and that’s a bad thing.” While not everyone is interested in hearing the group’s message, Lauth feels the group is gaining the support it needs from students.

“I think students are engaged and involved. The people who are working on the campaign feel really strongly about this,” said Lauth. “The support we really need comes from our president. We need him to be that leader and make that commitment for us.”

Fossil Fool’s Day is just one of the many events that have been held over the past two semesters on campus. Flash mobs held in UND’s Memorial Union and phone banking are some of the other ways that group members reach out to students, faculty and alumni to gain support for the cause.

“Today is actually one of the funnest ones we’ve done yet. Just spoofing it and making fun of it, and then in reality we are just very serious,” said Arras. “You get the joke, you know, it’s mud pie, stone soup, and then pull them in and just let them know that coal is serious and we need to get off of it, and this is how we are going to do it, and we have been making great strides this year.”

According to material released from the Sierra Club focusing on the Beyond Coal Campaign, UND has three boilers that are allowed to burn coal on campus. In 2000, the university spent $3.9 million on a comprehensive energy efficiency program in order to reduce the electrical and steam demand. Just five years later, the university spent $2.1 million to reduce electrical usage.

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