Student Fees at U. of Illinois Support Sustainability

A new business-school building is among projects supported by sustainability fees at the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U. of Illinois image)

Every semester students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign contribute $7 each toward sustainability — $5 for a Sustainable Campus Environment Fee and $2 for a Cleaner Energy Technologies Fee. An article in the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Illini, looks at some of the projects that money supports.

Among the most visible efforts is a classroom building for the university’s business school, now under construction, that is designed to achieve a LEED gold rating. Among other features, it will have a green roof that will cover part of the building, and it will use some solar power.

Also prominent is the university’s Red Oak Rain Garden, designed and installed by students as a class project. It is intended to capture rainfall and allow it to percolate slowly back into the groundwater supply, instead of being channeled into storm sewers.