The Stampede

The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities announced on March 27 that they will grant Milligan $4,750 to help fund Creative Care projects.

“Milligan College believes that we are all called to be stewards of God’s creation. By accepting this truth, we also must accept our responsibility to be proactive in the care and conservation of our environment,” states the proposal Milligan submitted to the CCCU for the grant.

A panel of professionals in the field of environmental sustainability reviewed the applications from 24 CCCU schools and awarded mini-grants to six schools including Milligan.

“The CCCU is pleased to be able to participate in this process and facilitate further steps in the creation care journey of six of our schools,” said Lisa-Jo Baker, CCCU Director of Development & Research, in a press release. “And we look forward to hearing how these mini-grants have served their respective campuses and created ripple effects in their communities.”

A Milligan Creative Care Initiative Team will oversee the use of the mini-grant. The team is led by President Don Jeanes and includes Service Manager of Facilities Ken Broyles, Professor of Humanities and Bible Craig Farmer and junior Marsha Allen.

On Monday, the team attended a four-hour webinar, which is an online conference call, from a computer in Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bill Greer’s office. They talked with representatives of the other five schools and the CCCU.

“We got to hear what other schools are doing,” said Farmer. “They got to give us feedback on things we think we want to do.”

Allen also attended a DuPont Energy Conference Monday and Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C., with Director of Alumni Relations Theresa Garbe, Vice President for Business Joe Whitaker and Broyles.

“They invited us to come and discuss how we can make our campus more green and how to save energy, how to take a more active approach,” said Allen.

Next week, the team will submit a final budget and proposal for how the money will be used.

“I’m incredibly happy that we’re moving forward and that we have support from the President,” said Allen. 

In their proposal, the team outlined a five-step process for Creative Care. First, they will create the position of Director of Sustainability to oversee all the campus efforts. 

They will purchase new recycling receptacles that are large and durable to accommodate the recycling on campus. 

“This program (recycling), administered through our Physical Plant Housekeeping Department, has been difficult to maintain consistently due to inadequate recycling receptacles and the difficulty of staffing this function through the use of the work-study program,” stated the proposal.

“The question is can we get bins that are somewhat convenient to students and can we get those bins emptied,” said Farmer.

The team will create campaigns to promote recycling and energy saving measures. In addition, the proposal calls for the college to commit to using recycled paper.

These proposed steps will add to ongoing efforts to make Milligan more eco-friendly, like the automatic shut-down of campus computers to save energy every night. 

During regular repairs around campus, hardware such as roofing, electrical systems and water fixtures are upgraded to save energy and water.

In the construction of new buildings, Jeanes promotes environmental sensitivity and energy saving techniques. The proposed wellness/fitness center, which is currently part of the capital campaign, will be a “green” building.

“Selecting the awardees was a challenging process and the review panel was impressed by the commitment to starting the creation care journey demonstrated by your application,” wrote Baker in the congratulations letter to Milligan.

“It’s like developing a consciousness that the little things, though very small, can add up,” said Farmer. “It’s ultimately going to save the college a lot of money, and that means we’re saving students money.”

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