Starting next year, the Golden Grizzlies may be a little more green thanks to the Oakland University Student Congress’ newest push to create an environmental, health, and wellness director student position. The initiative was created by the newest heads of the student body, President Annie Meinberg and Vice President Liz Iwanski, and given its first reading this Monday, April 14, during the general student body meeting.

“The environmental, health, and wellness position was something we pushed during our campaign and think it could really go to make a difference on campus,” Iwanski said. “It could help push us to bring out the natural beauty of our campus as well as maybe help students not to gain the ‘freshman fifteen.’”

Iwanski explained that the director will work to achieve overall student health and wellness on campus by collaborating with the administration on everything from creating new recycling programs to improving the health of the cafeteria food to establishing a more student-friendly recreation center.

Recently elected legislator Kristie Nixon publicly supported the new position. “Oakland is growing rapidly, but it would be great to say that we’re also environmentally-friendly,” she said.

While many of the legislators echoed Nixon’s approval, the proposal was not met without skepticism.

“Chartwells tried to make their food healthier this year, but it was kind of disappointing,” said legislator Andre Sykes. “How do we know that we won’t be throwing money at this position to make our food more disgusting than delicious?”

Iwanski stressed that the new position is not as focused on altering current foods as it is on making healthy additions. “We see [the health and wellness director] working with Chartwells to make fruits and veggies more accessible or adding a healthy snack bar in the Rec,” she said. “We aren’t planning to take away or change the pre-existing foods in the cafeteria.”

While the responsibilities of the new director may seem like a lot for one person to digest, Meinberg is confident in the capabilities of her and Iwanski’s pick for the position, Shawn Czewski. “He’s an environmental science major with a lot of great ideas for the job,” she said.

Having studied environmental science for four years with a specialization in resource management and sustainability, Czewski also manages his own business, selling America’s first-ever green cleaning supplies, as well as organic vitamins and supplements.

“I think [the position] is open to a lot of potential and I like that it’s uncharted,” he said. “OUSC is a very powerful student organization to be involved with and I will look to also push sustainability, not just initiatives and health facts.”

By pushing an eco-friendly agenda, OU will be following in the trendy green footsteps of institutions such as Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, which encourages health and wellness with highly positive results.

Oberlin, currently ranked with the “number one greenest conscience” by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, monitors minute-by-minute power and water usage in residence halls, allows students to see their energy consumption in real time online, and hosts yearly “ecolympics,” a competition between dorms to reduce electricity and water use, placing sustainability directly into its students hands.

After taking the initiative to encourage campus sustainability in 2007, Oberlin has seen constant growth in its freshman retention rate, “an indicator of student satisfaction,” according to US News.

Czewski too hopes to increase student satisfaction while promoting campus environmental health and wellness. “One event idea I was thinking about was during Halloween, when everyone’s getting back into the swing of things, holding a Zumba event where people can dress up in costumes; I’d call it ‘Zomba,’” he said. “It’d be an opportunity for people to forget about the exercising part, have fun, and also be able to see what types of classes we offer at the rec center.”

The meeting also featured OUSC Executive Board approval elections, in which, in a rare turn of events, every chair was unanimously elected. The new board is as follows: Jorge Garcia as Student Activities Funding Board Chairperson, Rylin Ploe as Student Program Board Chair, Bria Ellis as Legislative Affairs Director, newcomer Jessah Rolstone as Multicultural Affairs Director, Wayne State transfer student Sam Harris as Financial Affairs Director, Kyler Johnson as Student Services Director, Josh Pokrefky as Marketing Director, Kathleen Peterson as Visual Communications Director, and Cassie Hock as Administrative Assistant.

Kristie Nixon, Madison Kubinski, Jeffrey Schuett, and Brittany Hall were all elected to serve in the scholarship, steering, judiciary, and parliamentarian legislative committee chairs, respectively.

The new executive board and committee chairs will officially begin next Monday, April 21, at 4 p.m., when the  second reading and OUSC vote on the health and wellness director proposal will take place in the Gold Rooms of the Oakland Center.