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A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin College. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: May 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Dana Schmitz, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, campus correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Heather Darrow, special contributor; Sandy Suvannachakkham, special contributor; Kathryn Martin, special contributor; Nick Young, photographer and layout.
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Water goes beneath the microscope at Scholars Luncheon
Students from around the college and across the disciplines came together to talk about one thing March 20 at the Central Park Campus.
Water.
As part of the inaugural Scholars Luncheon, students in political science, speech, English, sociology and history classes from all three Collin College campuses were charged with writing an essay about water. The best essays were voted on in the class and those deemed the best in the class were invited to the luncheon.
At the luncheon, students were assigned seats with two other students and a participating faculty member from all the disciplines. In addition to reading each other’s essays, they talked turkey about what they thought about water. Once the tables finished their internal discussion, one student was chosen to present that table’s discussion, salient points and other anecdotes.
Much of the discussion hinged on water usage and the waste that takes place when taps are left on, when showers last 30 minutes, and also how the supply around north Texas teeters on drought.
Student Steve Ledsmer and his table discussed water issues on a local, regional and global perspective. He said 2/3 of water usage is in the house and that changing one routine can make a big change in the amount of water used. Regionally, Ledsmer said droughts could lead to another Dust Bowl, a catastrophic series of dust storms that ravaged North American prairie lands -- like Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas -- in the 1930s, forcing many farmers to emigrate west for jobs.
Student Bill Nabors said that the water shortage that seems to hit the Metroplex every summer resulting in water restrictions and bans isn’t the result of waste as much as it is a result of mismanagement. He added that authorities must find long-term -- not short-term -- solutions and that individuals and families can find ways of reusing rainwater.
“There is a lot more mismanagement in the water system rather than misuse,” Nabors said. “Everyone needs to be held accountable.”
Another table introduced the idea that water shortage may not be drought, but demand due to an increasing population. Home owners should take advantage of government incentives and rebates to install low-flow toilets, rain-catching systems and efficient waters.
In all, the students said there were solutions but that people must make an effort toward reaching these goals. Because the United States is a resource-rich nation -- water included -- it has caused many to rest on their laurels when it comes to conserving those assets, the group of 21 students asserted.
“You guys are engaging in a theme that is a world problem and we should be talking about it at college,” Rex Parcells, Central Park Campus provost, said of the luncheon and the importance of college as a stage to tackle such issues.
“It can start in the college with students getting passionate about something.”
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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