The Center for the Common Good provides stickers for the St. Thomas community to share their various modes of transportation to campus. It is the hope that these stickers will serve as “visual learning cues.” (Taylor Shupe/TommieMedia)
While discussing ways to embed more sustainability on St. Thomas’ campus, the Center for the Common Good decided to challenge St. Thomas faculty, staff and students in a unique way: giving up their car for Lent.
Prior to the Lent idea, the Center for the Common Good had free stickers with quotes like “I walk to St. Thomas” or “I bike to St. Thomas,” encouraging people to be proud of choosing an environmentally friendly mode of transportation to campus. Manuela Hill-Munoz, the director of student engagement for the Center for the Common Good, decided to bring the stickers to multiple offices in the Anderson Student Center to continue spreading the encouragement.
“We’ve seen a lot of people take the stickers. Each office got 20 stickers,” Hill-Munoz said. “It’s translating changemaking from a noun to an action verb.”
The Center for the Common Good considers these stickers to work as positive psychology. The hope is that by seeing the stickers, people may be more apt to also partake in a sustainable transportation to campus.
“Learning often times happens when you don’t think about it but when you see a cue,” Hill-Munoz said.
Hill-Munoz has placed her sticker on a notebook that she carries everywhere.
“So when I go to a meeting I put this notebook down and everyone at that table has the ability to have a visual cue about my sticker and be able to like ‘Oh how do I get one?’ or ‘What is that sticker about?’” Hill-Munoz said.
Hill-Munoz explained that this then creates a ripple in conversation, developing the idea that at St. Thomas it’s a culture that sustainable modes of transportation are something to be proud of.
“You’re not riding the bus because you’re poor, or rather because you’re choosing to be proactive,” Hill-Munoz said.
There are five different stickers on campus: biking, taking the bus, carpooling and two different illustrations representing walking.
“I have my little pledge sticker… I think a lot of students that are about a mile away from campus commute in their car by themselves… you could ride a bike and that would be a way better option,” St. Thomas Sustainability Club President Hannah Wallace said.
Manuela Hill-Munoz holds her notebook where she proudly exemplifies how she travels to campus. Hill-Munoz is the director of student engagement for the Center for the Common Good. (Taylor Shupe/TommieMedia)
One of Wallace’s draws to leading the Sustainability Club has been to bridge the gap of student’s knowledge of sustainability and what the university is doing to work towards a more sustainable campus.
Wallace said she has noticed that lots of students don’t know a lot about sustainability in general and don’t really care. She has noticed students may not believe that St. Thomas is doing much to be more sustainable.
“In the world, sustainability may not be a huge priority, but at St. Thomas it is,” Wallace said.
The Center for the Common Good’s Lent project is allowing more students to see St. Thomas’ efforts sustainability efforts.
“I think their challenge to students is good and it’s not a traditional thing to give up for Lent,” Wallace said. “I think it’s really awesome.”
The idea that St. Thomas campus could likely hold less parking spaces next year after construction on the chapel and residential buildings are complete was another reason behind the Lent project.
Encouraging students to limit their driving to campus now could help with that transition to less parking availability in the future.
Hill-Munoz noted that it didn’t take long for a couple of the offices to run out of stickers and then need to be restocked.
Taylor Shupe can be contacted at shup9397@stthomas.edu.