News from the International Town & Gown Association

"RecycleMania" Builds Excitement Nationwide
West LaFayette, Ind. (WLFI) - WFLI.COM reports Purdue joined roughly 580 schools nationwide last weekend, participating in a competition called "RecycleMania." Carmen Martin, president of the student group Boiler Green Initiative, said the rules for RecycleMania are simple: the school with the most recyclables collected wins."The goal is to have more recyclable material and less waste per capita than the other schools. There's actually a place where you can see how we're doing. We'll be keeping track of all the 'Big 10' schools and all the Indiana schools that are competing on the website," said Martin. Organizations across Purdue have each adopted one of the competition's 10 weeks and will do what they can to collect recyclables. The Boiler Green Initiative has adopted the first week. Members spent their Sunday cleaning up Mackey Arena after the girls' basketball game. Martin said there is definitely excitement in the air."This is our first year. We are really excited about getting it off with a bang, and making sure everyone knows we are participating, which is why we are really excited about stuff like this," said Martin.

Greeks Reaching Out To State College Borough Officials
State College,PA-The Collegian explains discussions to benefit campus and community. The greek community brought talks of town-and-gown relations to the fraternity house Wednesday night. Leaders in the Interfraternity Council (IFC), Panhellenic Council and student government met with State College Borough officials Wednesday to discuss longstanding issues like excessive drinking and accountability. The meeting, held at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house at 346 E. Prospect Ave., is the first of a series of meetings to foster communication between student leaders and borough officials. The meeting came at the request of the Lion Fraternity Alumni Association (LFAA), a group for Penn State greek alumni, according to a press release. IFC President Max Wendkos (senior-marketing and psychology) said the group came up with several good ideas and is ready to create an action plan. Some of the initiatives discussed included creating an IFC community relations committee, establishing a new strategy for neighborhood policing and creating an Emergency Room unit at the University Health Services.