FS goes green at Dawg Daze
Facilities’ own UW Recycling, Emergency Management and Transportation Services, alongside UW Sustainability, took to the bricks to participate in the UW Dawg Daze Student Activities Fair.
Emergency Services camped out on Red Square with their “Wheel of Misfortune.”
As a collaboration between the University of Washington’s First Year Programs and Student Activities Office, UW Dawg Daze was created to promote on-campus services, bring awareness to registered student organizations, and discover unique ways to get involved across campus.
Before students begrudgingly emerged from their dorm rooms for early morning classes, Facilities Services staff and collaborators were up and ready to mingle.
When the clock struck 10 a.m., UW Recycling and UW Sustainability’s table was covered in waste flow charts, composting infographics, and a tiny chair for Sqwatch — the UW Sustainability mascot. Emergency Management started off the morning with a “Wheel of Misfortune.” When community members spun the wheel, they could participate in analyzing survival situations, including a zombie apocalypse. Transportation Services table had a collection of giveaways: stickers, Clif bars, and an opportunity to score bigger prizes.
The UW community gathered outside the ASUW Bike Shop, located inside the HUB, to discuss bicycle safety and preparation.
While Facilities Services departments prepped their tables for the Student Activities Fair on Thursday, Oct. 1, TS kicked it into gear earlier in the week outside the ASUW Bike Shop for their “Ride to the Center of the Universe.” Emily Kathrein and Ana Seivert from Transportation Services took students on a trip down to Fremont, but not before teaching a hands-on lesson about the ABCs of biking: checking your air, brakes, chain, cassette and crank.
While being a “clean” method of transportation was one of the reasons students chose to bike, Kathrein pointed why biking is part of her commute: it’s fun.
After they clipped their helmets, checked their air pressure, and slung on their backpacks, the bike riders peddled down Stevens Way and off to the Burke–Gilman Trail.
Later in the day, Transportation Services took over the Commuter Commons. Located on the far edge of the Husky Union Building, Miriam Castro, a program operations specialist, and Casey Gifford, Commute Options’ individualized marketing specialist, took turns delving into a sea of students to deliver smoothies and milkshakes.
Food was the perfect persuasion, as the Commuter Commons was soon packed with students eager to blend their own snack.
Casey Gifford pours the finished product into compostable cups during the Dawg Daze bike blender event.
Instead blending their treats with electricity, students burned calories.
Students got in line to peddle on the innovative “Bike Blender,” swapping shifts to put their calf muscles to the test to fuse chunky strawberries and chocolate syrup.
Using sustainable energy never tasted so good.
“We work hard to make sure students know they have options when it comes to commuting, and that there are great transportation benefits that come with being a UW student, including Universal U-PASS membership and access to our Commute Concierge service,” Gifford said. “We try to get them involved in fun, interactive and memorable ways, such as through bike-blended treats, temporary tattoos and accompanying conversations. And students get it—a whopping 93 percent of students come to campus via non-drive alone options, and that’s something we’re really proud of!”
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Facilities Services own UW Surplus plastered up purple and gold Dawg Daze signs to welcome new Huskies to their weekly public sale.
Eric Wahl helps a customer check out during the Surplus’ public hours.
The line for checkout, guided by two retractable stanchions, weaved throughout the store. Athletic apparel, large UW bulletin boards, and empty trash cans were toted through the line, some rolled by carts and others cradled in the arms of customers.
Behind the line, items were dispersed throughout the store. The chair section was filled with red and brown retro school desks. Hidden on shelves were cash registers, dozens of computer monitors, and oddities like enormous Gatorade coolers.
The store was swamped, and for a good cause: each item stacked on the shelves had been used before, part of the UW Surplus’ mission to reuse first, re-purpose second, and recycle third.
“Sustainability is both the guiding principle and the propelling engine for UW Surplus, as it informs every facet of what we do and why we do it. UW Surplus takes in items that are no longer needed from all UW departments and medical facilities—from boxes of miscellaneous office supplies to furniture, from computers to toys, sports equipment to vehicles, broken items to remodeling leftovers and architectural salvage,” said Eric Wahl, the Office Program Coordinator for UW Surplus. “Our job, and our point of pride, is selling, auctioning, or recycling the greatest percentage of what comes to us, and our customers continue to tell us how happy and often surprised they are to find such great deals in the Surplus Store when compared to regular retail prices.”
