In the past year, Washington University’s recycling program has gotten a new design that makes it simpler for students to be environmentally responsible. The University’s recycling program has been streamlined to feature a more efficient single-stream recycling method.

Garbage compactors have been placed in two locations, Stanley’s Cafe and Whispers, as part of a pilot program. The compactors, which were designed by a Washington University alumnus, are meant to decrease the volume of the University’s trash.

A few days ago, while fulfilling my mandatory daily quota of procrastination courtesy of Facebook, I came across an event entitled “One Day without Shoes.” Intrigued, I clicked “attending” and waited for the event page to load. I’m a sucker for ostensibly hippy happenings, and this event had “Stick It to the Bourgeois Footwear-Donning Establishment” written all over it—or so I thought.

I’m relieved to see finally the Wash. U. sustainability plan, but it isn’t good enough. I appreciate the administration’s efforts to adopt broad policies that will help reduce the University’s impact on nature. The fact that our university acknowledges the serious threat climate change poses to the nation’s natural resources (which is probably more than coal and energy executives on its board are willing to admit) is refreshing.