Individual Topic Pitches

jtirrell's picture

Please post your one-page Online Community Advocacy topic pitch in a comment below (see the project page for details about the pitch). Be prepared to discuss your pitch briefly in class on Friday. The class will vote on a limited number of topic pitches to pursue. Those whose pitches are selected will receive individual bonus points on the assignment.

Soap Dispenser

Many of the English/History students who are in and out of Morton Hall often have a common complaint that could be very easily fixed. The women’s bathroom in Morton Hall only has one hand soap dispenser for three sinks and four bathroom stalls. This is not a huge issue; however, standing in line to get a little soap to walk back to the other side of the restroom and wash up with is ridiculous. It can be solved by adding one or even better two soap dispensers in the middle of the sinks.

This bathroom, the one upstairs near room 204, is the only bathroom that I have noticed to have this problem. But, I have heard there are more. For this project though, I would like to focus on getting more soap dispensers in this one bathroom. I think it could be easily done if we could talk to the departments that use Morton and explain that it is a health hazard.

I have seen multiple ladies get frustrated by the number of people in the restroom and not even wash their hands because of the lack of convenient soap. This causes problems for everyone. When someone uses the restroom and doesn’t take the time to wash their hands afterwards they spread their germs to other people by touching door handles, computer keyboards, pencils, etc. If there are more soap dispensers available than these ladies do not have an excuse for not washing their hands.

Also, having one soap dispenser at the end of the sinks causes a problem for the janitor. Many ladies rinse their hands, walk across to get soap, walk back to their sink and continue washing their hands. The problem here is that when they rinse their hands they drip water all the way back to the soap dispenser. If one lady does this it is not a big deal, but when many do it puddles start forming in the restroom and it becomes slippery. Eventually a hazard sign is placed on the floor and the janitor has to come and mop it up. If they didn’t have to walk back and forth then this wouldn’t be here, the janitor wouldn’t have to do extra work, and there wouldn’t be a chance of someone slipping on the water and falling down—potentially getting hurt. This is not just a made up story, pretty much everyone who goes into that restroom can testify to seeing water all over the floor.

Another big problem arises when the one soap dispenser runs out, which happens often, and there is no other soap dispenser available to go to. Then we are left with the same problems as before—dirty, germy hands. This restroom needs to be updated with at least one more soap dispenser. It is a frequently used restroom that is never in tip-top condition. Adding just one soap dispenser could cut back on the number of sick students, decrease the amount of work for the janitor, decrease the chance of someone slipping, and make washing hands more convenient and therefore done more often.

A Healthier You

Healthy Vending Machines

I want to promote healthier eating on campus and there are healthy vending machines that can aid this idea. Through research I discovered that there are a few healthy vending machines on-campus, but no one knows about them.

Students often make poor food decisions when they need a snack, something quick, or just something to fill their tummies. The healthy vending machines allow people to make a selection that will benefit the consumer. For example, if someone wanted a snack and only had the options of candy and potato chips, they would eat the snack have a sugar high and then crash because the snack does not have lasting nutritional value. However, if someone snacked on a granola bar the would have lasting energy for their day. The whole grains take longer to digest and keep the consumer fuller longer. Also, this choice is much healthier for the student and can promote better health choices in the future. Students need to be aware of the things they are putting in their body because loads of sugar and carbs are the reason why America is supersized.

According to 1800Vending.com,
Here are the facts:

  • America is becoming a nutrition-conscious nation because Americans are choosing a healthier lifestyle
  • Americans are eating healthier at home and are looking for healthy options in vending machines as well
  • In 2007 consumption of carbonated, sugared drinks dropped by 2.6% but consumption of flavored and enhanced waters increased by over 30%
  • Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kellogg and other long established companies are introducing new healthy and organic products like never before
  • Healthy/organic product producers represent the fastest growing segment of the vending product industry

For more information about vending choices, go to HealthyYOU™

I want to put healthy vending machines in all of the buildings on campus that are already vending junk food. For example, Morton, Leutze, S&B, CIS, etc. In Cameron Hall there are more choices with healthy options such as fruit and breakfast bars, but that is not enough for a campus consisting of thousands of people.

These resources are available to the students, we just need to make it known!

Water Conservation

Water Conservation
It seems as if any time I walk into a restroom on campus there is either a toilet running or the sink has been left on or it is leaking. Just from what I have noticed this happens many times in Morton Hall and in the Fisher Student Center. Something needs to be done so that students will take the initiative to prevent faucets from being left on or maintenance needs to be notified in an orderly fashion to come and fix the problem.
The issue with the restroom in the student center is that the toilet will flush at random times because they are motion activated. I remember multiple times when I have seen girls simply walk by an open stall and the toilet will flush. I cannot imagine the amount of water we are wasting on our campus that could be eliminated if we paid attention to the issue.
For the most part our campus has tried to go “greener” and they have succeeded in doing a number of things to prevent unnecessary waste but I think that the wasting of water is one that has been overlooked. I think this project would be an excellent outlet to solve this issue.

iPrint stations for Morton

For English majors, we have come to love and know Morton Hall on a personal level. Sure it has its quirks, like the classrooms with strange paint colors. But one major dissatisfaction with Morton is that it does not have an iPrint station. Now does it make sense to anyone that the English and history building, full of English and history majors with papers due almost every day, does not have a printing station?

Sure, the library is a one minute walk away. But in order to use the library’s iPrint, one must first have use of a library computer. Not so easy, especially these days with the library under construction. Even if the student were able to get a computer, he would have to wait in line to actually use the iPrint station. And by that time he’s probably late to class, because, honestly, who doesn’t wait till the last minute to print your paper and get to class?

It would also help classes. How many times has a student gone to print off something in Morton 204, only to realize that that printer doesn’t work for students? It hasn’t in years, actually. If we had an iPrint station, we could print off whatever document the professor wanted. It would save the confusion of having to email it to the professor.

One concern with this project might be that the university is trying to be greener. An iPrint station wouldn’t prevent that cause, however. If a student were to use the Morton iPrint station, it would be because the document needed to be printed and would be printed anyway, probably at another iPrint station on campus.

An iPrint station would be a major amenity to Morton. It would make us all very happy, and prevent students being late to class because they are printing off a paper. All we are asking for is one station that would have a nice home in one of the bigger hallways.

Designated Smoking Areas with Seating Available

Everyone on campus knows that smokers need to stay at least 25 feet from the entrance of every building. This is a perfectly reasonable rule, even fairly lenient as it is 100 feet at Chapel Hill and banned on several other college campuses. However, it can be difficult to judge how far away 25 feet is from any given building on campus. Also, there don't seem to be many places for smokers to sit that are 25 feet from building entrances. As a result, many people simply ignore this rule and smoke wherever.

In order to prevent confusion about where people should smoke and where they shouldn't, there should be several signs around the main part of campus that designate certain areas as acceptable areas to smoke. It would also be great if picnic tables or just a few benches were put at these locations, so that students who smoke will be more likely to follow the rule.

Some may say that this just encourages smoking. While this is debatable, it would prevent students from breaking the 25 feet rule. It would also help non-smokers avoid having to walk through smoke to enter the library or the student center.

English Help

I propose that we advocate to set-up a tutoring center to help local students struggling with writing and grammar. The tutoring center would not be for college students; this would be an opportunity for UNCW students to give back to the Wilmington community. The tutoring center would be a part of the English department and offer tutoring to students in local schools in grades 5th-12th. Having a tutor is often helpful for kids struggling in school and getting them outside of their normal environments helps studying and may also help to encourge enrollment.

Cheaper College Books From College Students

I think it would be a really great idea to be able to find the books you need for classes faster through an online system based thread where students would be selling their books to other students for a cheaper price than they are sold in the store or other website. If there was a way that you could search specifically for a certain class or a certain book and know that it was cheaper than in the store, i would use that program.

Now in days people are trying so hard to save money, especially with the way the economy is looking, and college students are no exception. I think it's especially inportant for students to save their money and what better way than to buy cheap books. There are plenty of websites that sell colelge text books for cheaper prices but alot of the time the edition of the book changes and you are out of luck.

A great way to do this is to possibly make a facebook group for each college. Our page for instance would have comments from people trying to SELL or BUY books for their classes and how much they are willing to spend/sell it for. If we could even use a whole different program that allows us to make pages for each department that would make things easier. That way people wouldn't have to skim through pages of comments trying to find the right class/book they need. By having different pages students would be able to click on their class and from there find the proper book they need.

Parking Deck problems

That Guy's picture

Problem or Issue
Access to the parking deck is extremely limited and extremely expensive. Understandably the campus needs to make money, but at the same time off campus students need some where to park with out paying their weekly salary to do so. Another issue with the deck involves the entrance. Their is only one entrance and when it goes down no one gets in or out.

Possible Solution's
For the first issue I propose making the first floor and fourth floor free parking for guests. The Fourth floor is always empty. The entrance issue could be solved by making 4 existing exits both entrances and exits. This would make things a lot easier and manageable for students and guests. Down time during maintenance would be avoidable due to the multiple exits.

Public Transportation

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How many of you have had or know somebody that has gotten a DUI in Wilmington? New Hanover County is one of the smallest counties in North Carolina yet it has the highest DUI rate in the state. Obviously no one encourages drinking and driving, but unlike other schools in the state, UNCW has no public transportation late at night. Therefore, every night students decide to go out, they are forced to either pay for a taxi or drive home. Unfortunately, many people choose to drive home and this puts many people’s lives at risk.

The purpose of my pitch is to show UNCW and the Wilmington community, the staggering amount of DUIs that occur and show them how beneficial it would be for us to have public transportation in the evenings. I would show them how other schools in the state that have public transportation compare to us and why we could create a successful program.

Although it is a big project and will be difficult to implement, I think that there are many supporters out there that can at least bring the issue to the local spotlight. Safety is something that people are always concerned with, but this issue is putting innocent people’s lives at risk. I think that if we can show the Wilmington community that drinking and driving is a serious problem, than we gain enough support to bring about some change and hopefully save some lives.

Widening Roads for Off-Campus Commuters

In search for a convenient commute to class, many UNCW students living off-campus choose to reside in houses or apartments within a mile radius of the university and on the east side of College Road. Unable to qualify for a parking pass, many of these students bike, skateboard, or walk to class on MacMillan Avenue, Rose Avenue, Wood Dale Drive, Raccine Drive, or College Acres Drive. Although Raccine and MacMillan both have sidewalks, Rose, Wood Dale, and College Acres have neither a sidewalk nor a bike path, forcing commuters to travel on the road. With the sun setting between five and six for the majority of the school year, this becomes a life-threatening problem for any off-camupus student that has a late class, needs to eat on campus, or needs to use a computer-lab, the library, or the Fischer Student Center to complete an assignment.

I propose advocating the Public Service Department of the City of Wilmington to help make these trafficked areas safer for commuters by extending the width of Clear Run Drive, Rose Avenue, and Wood Dale Drive to include a path that can be used for bicyclists, skateboarders, and pedestrians. Using the Internet and social-networking sites like Facebook, UNCW students and faculty could be made aware of the problem, and a list of students that would benefit from the extended roads could be assembled to persuade the Public Service Department, as well as residents of these streets that may at first be hesitant of moving their mailboxes back three feet.

Wrightsville Beach Recycling Pickup

I am a new resident of Wrightsville Beach and was shocked to find out that they do not offer curbside recycling. My roommates and I are constantly loading bags of plastic and glass bottles into our cars and driving them to the recycling centers at local grocery stores. Almost every night, I cringe at the sound of hundreds of glass bottles being dumped into normal trash dumpsters by employees of the local bars.

It is appalling to me that a tourist area with so many bars and restaurants does not have a functioning recycling pickup; it almost comes off as pure laziness. A recent survey covered in StarNews (located here) shows that a majority of Wrightsville Beach residents would be willing to pay for the curbside pickup of recycling.

The use of social technologies would be a great vehicle for creating awareness for this issue. An online petition could be created and presented to the town officials, proving the public outcry for such a service. This is an issue that already has public backing and would be a positive change in our community.

Recycling on Campus

One thing that I have noticed about UNCW is that the campus is obviously attempting to go greener. This is a great thing, and I am glad to help do my part with recycling and going greener. There are more recycling bins on campus than there have been in the past, more signs asking students to recycle, a whole store dedicated to a greener way of life, etc. However, one issue that I think needs to be addressed about recycling is the lack of recycling bins in both the classrooms on campus, and within the on-campus living spaces.

How many times have you brought a water bottle or a soda to class in a plastic bottle? Probably more times than you can count. How many times have you recycled that plastic bottle? You probably can’t count that. I have seen students throwing away recyclables all the time both on campus and even in the on-campus apartments, dorms etc.

The growth of water bottles alone has increased from 3.3 billion in 1997 to 15 billion in 2002.
How many of those bottles are recycled? There is a current North Carolina Law that bans throwing away plastic bottles, yet people still toss them in the trash on campus because of the lack of recycling bins.

Another fact: More than 2.4 billion pounds of plastic bottles were recycled in 2008. Although the amount of plastic bottles recycled in the U.S. has grown every year since 1990, the actual recycling rate remains steady at around 27 percent.

And one more: Recycling 1 ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.

When I was a freshman living in Graham, no one recycled at all and all the trash was thrown into a giant pile along with things that could be recycled. Now that I live in the Seahawk Village, I still see the same problem. My roommates were all throwing their plastic and glass right into the trash, until I said something about its, and I put a crate out for recyclables. They finally started putting their plastic, etc. in the bin. But how many people still aren't doing their part? A lot. I have friends that live upstairs, and they never recycle at all.

So what needs to be done? Recycling bins need to be put next to the garbage cans in every classroom. They don’t need to be very large, and I think that they are actually free from the National Recycling Coalition. We also need to put them in dorms and in the on-campus housing spaces to cut down on the waste.

I really believe that this will cut down on the number of recyclables that are thrown away and help make out campus a cleaner, greener place. It is an easy and effective way to quietly change the way people think about their trash.

Supplies for local students

In one of my classes we have a project to this semester create a product or organization and market it to an audience. My group decided to create an organization that would raise money and school supplies for local elementary school students. Since the assignment for that class is to simply come up with the idea and organization but not actually market it or raise money, I thought that the assignment for this class was a good opportunity to actually help the members of the community.

There are several elementary schools in the area, and I'm sure they would be happy to accept donations of money or supplies for students who need them. We could create fundraising events, set up around campus to raise awareness, and electronically promote the organization in order to collect as much money and as many supplies as possible for the students.

Off-Campus Food Dollars

Group Advocacy Project Proposal
By: Olivia Cunningham

UNCW students who live on-campus are forced to buy a meal-plan through the university. Unfortunately, this greatly limits their food choices, leaving wasted food dollars and extra meal swipes – money that could have been used elsewhere. I propose that UNCW works with neighboring restaurants to accept food dollars from UNCW ID’s in order to widen the meal selection for students with meal plans.

First, local restaurants must agree to this proposal. Once at least eight restaurants agree, UNCW can re-format the ID cards to work as sort of debit cards. Restaurants can choose to accept either food dollars or meal swipes. It will work almost exactly the same way it works on campus. Only the restaurants which work with UNCW for this will be able to accept the ID as a form of payment, but it will still increase the number of food options for students. Also, as it becomes more popular, more restaurants will join in and benefit from the increase in student customers. Schools like Duke University have already implemented this type of system and they have partnerships with around 60 restaurants in the area. Imagine all the choices!

This process will be beneficial for students, UNCW and many local restaurants. Students will have a bigger variety to choose from, UNCW will sell more meal plans and therefore make more profit from that, and local restaurants will gain the business of many more students. It’s a win-win-win situation!