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RAMAPO NEWS |
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Sporting bike pants and helmets Ramapo College security officers recently debuted their newest uniforms along with the very latest in patrol vehicles – mountain bikes. After an initial training course, the officers who volunteered for the bike patrol began duty last month. The bike patrol has had an immediate environmental impact. The officers are averaging 10 miles per day or 50 miles per week. For each mile traveled by security personnel with human power, a fossil-fuel mile is avoided. It is estimated that every five miles saves one gallon of gas (gas mileage is low for security vehicles because of time spent idling and at low speeds). Not only is there a savings from the reduction in gasoline and motor vehicle costs, there is also an actual reduction in vehicle emissions. On top of that there is an added advantage: the physical activity required is benefiting bike patrol personnel. Comments from students have been favorable. They describe the bike patrol officers as more approachable than those in other vehicles. And, not surprisingly, morale has gone up due to better physical fitness and an increase in public contact. In addition, two emergency medical technicians are trained on the bikes. “Emergency Medical Services is a large part of our community effort,” says Russ Hoffman, director of security at Ramapo. “If we use the ambulance for every call, we put that wear and tear on the vehicle.” The technicians carry oxygen and a defibrillator on the bikes when they respond to a call and are backed up by the ambulance if needed. The project is part of an effort to reduce the environmental impact of the state’s colleges and universities and involves eight campuses that have joined to form the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability. Launched last spring with the support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in Morristown, the Partnership includes Montclair State University, Ramapo College, Kean University, Rutgers University, Stevens Institute of Technology, The College of New Jersey, Princeton Environmental Institute, and Bergen Community College. “How academic institutions consume electricity, discharge waste water, apply chemicals to their landscapes, operate vehicles, purchase products, dispose of or recycle their wastes, and a range of many other activities means more than mere maintenance,” says James Quigley, executive director of the Partnership. “The entire process sets an example for students, faculty, staff and the community.” Quigley contends that we have no models anywhere of truly sustainable institutions. At the center of the project is networking and information sharing between the campuses. Anthony Cortese, executive director of Second Nature, a Boston-based sustainability training organization that Dodge is funding to work with the Partnership, notes of the New Jersey effort, “It is a model for what can happen in other states and regions. If we can make it work here, this model will be copied widely.” According to Michael Edelstein, who teaches environmental studies at Ramapo and is a director of the Partnership, “There is no more urgent task before educators than to provide our students with an opportunity to learn how to live sustainably on this earth. The campus is the logical place to innovate along these lines because we are historically leaders, because we have a responsibility and opportunity to be self-reflective that other institutions may not have, and because we are preparing the next generation of citizens.” Officer Autumn Gerena initiated the project in response to Hoffman’s call for suggestions on how the Security Office could be more user friendly. She did the research and, together with Edelstein and fellow member of the faculty Clifford Peterson, put together the grant proposal.
Photo: Joe Salmon
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Bike Patrol: Saving Lives, Saving the Planet