Crusading for cups

Eliminating Styrofoam from eateries is worth the hassle

Mugs. Reusable mugs.

It seems like such a simple idea. University students buy reusable mugs from the University or Eco-Action for a couple of bucks or less and attach them to their backpacks.

Whenever they need their thirst quenched at the HUB or other on-campus eateries, they take out their mug and refill it.

All students carry backpacks or some type of bag, so there will always be some place to attach their trusty mug. The only real effort on the students' part is the difficult task of remembering their mugs. After a few times of forgetting their mugs and having to pay more for a Styrofoam cup or not getting a drink at all, they will start remembering.

The idea isn't completely unheard of at Penn State.

Eco-Action has been crusading against the use of Styrofoam for the past two years with little encouragement from the University.

Recently Undergraduate Student Government Vice President Ed Kilpela joined the crusade and has successfully converted many of his USG colleagues into avid cup-users.

But a few students owning mugs will not solve the problem; students have to use them.

And a few HUB-clubbers cannot change the face of a University resisting change.

Although Food Services staff are doing their part by randomly distributing 100 mugs a day for the next week to encourage their use, they are not optimistic about the plan or student reaction to it.

At James Madison University and other schools across the nation, students are already lugging their mugs. Only two on-campus eateries at JMU still have disposable cups available.

Granted, it took JMU five years to convince 13,000 students and the administration that helping the environment was more important than the minor inconvenience of remembering their mugs and the bureaucratic technicalities of selling, washing and promoting mugs while taking a slight financial loss.

Most likely, it will take longer here.

While students try to make a good, environmentally conscious change, the University may worry about change lost in its cash drawer.

Money is not the largest issue here, though. And for administrators who run a major statewide university, finding a way to revamp a cup system shouldn't be a problem.

The University figured out how to completely modernize the HUB -- it can surely figure out how to modernize and fund the services inside.