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Campus Review
October 10, 2013
The Bio-Digestor is proving to be benefi-
cial to the Clayton State campus in sever-
al ways. First, it’s helping to alleviate the
dining staffs’ work load through the
amount of trash that’s collected from the
kitchen and from the time-consuming trek
of carrying the trash all the way up to the
James M. Baker Center’s second floor
loading dock. Second, it’s decreasing the
amount of food waste at the dumpster and
keeping odors and pests at bay. In addition
with the decreased amount of food waste,
hopefully the frequency of trash pickups
will be reduced, potentially saving the
University money. Thirdly, the Bio-
Digestor is decreasing the carbon foot-
print of the University.
Another potential benefit, although not in
effect at Clayton State quite yet, is the
idea of recycling the grey water collected
from the Bio-Digestor and using it
towards irrigating the landscape or filling
the lakes on the campus.
So, whose idea was it to advocate for a
greener alternative in food waste? It was
Carolina Amero, assistant vice president
of Auxiliary and Administrative Services
and the organization advisor for the
Clayton State Go Green Student
Organization. Amero saw the Bio-
Digestor at a trade show a few years back
and learned from a few other Georgia col-
leges how the Bio-Digestor has benefited
their campuses. She then proposed the
idea at Clayton State.
“It’s inexpensive, clean, safe, and easy to
use and that it is just another step in sus-
tainability,” she says.
The fall 2013 semester is the first semes-
ter that the Bio-Digestor has been active
in helping to reduce food waste on cam-
pus and hopefully by the end of the
semester Amero says the University will
be able to eliminate close to 20,000
pounds of food waste.
Bio-Digester, cont’d. from p. 3
Clayton State Schedules
Second Degree Completion Event
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the Clayton State
Office of Enrollment Management &
Academic Success will hold its second
Degree Completion Event, designed to
attract prospective students in the Clayton
State service area who have earned col-
lege credit, but have not yet earned a
degree. The Degree Completion Event
will run continuously from 5 p.m. to 8
p.m., in room 101 of the Harry S. Downs
Center. Interested individuals can drop in
at any time between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.,
without needing a reservation, to learn
more about degree completion.
According to Dr. Mark Daddona, associ-
ate vice president of Enrollment
Management & Academic Success, the
July 2013 pilot event attracted 24 people,
four of whom are currently enrolled at
Clayton State, with seven scheduled to
follow them in the spring 2014 semester.
“We feel this is a good start to reaching
out to this population,” he says of the first
Degree Completion Event.
Indeed, Clayton State is uniquely quali-
fied to reach the estimated million plus
Georgians who have some college credit,
but no degree, a remarkable statistic that
Governor Nathan Deal noted in creating
the Complete College Georgia initiative
in 2012.
While everyone agrees that it is important
to the state, to the economy, and to the
individual that these million plus
Georgians earn their college degrees, very
few think that returning to college after
the passage of a number of years is an
easy path to take. That’s where Clayton
State comes into the picture. Serving these
“non-traditional” students (defined as
individuals who graduated high school
more than five years ago) has long been a
hallmark of Clayton State. For the past 18
years, the average age of the Clayton State
student body has never been less than 26
years old.
And while statistics do tell a story of
Clayton State’s focus on older students,
they don’t tell the entire story, nor do they
tell the most important part of the story.
That comes from Clayton State’s equally-
long-standing tradition as a supportive
community for students; for its student-
centeredness. Whether it’s helping non-
traditional students get back up to speed
in algebra, holding a large number of
night-time classes to serve working stu-
dents, providing a significant number of
on-line classes (something Clayton State
has done since the late 1990s), or the
many and diverse efforts and tutoring pro-
grams of the University’s Center for
Academic Success, support for students
(of all ages) has long been one of the
University’s primary attributes.
Perhaps Dr. Donna McCarty, chair of the
Psychology Department, and a Clayton
State faculty member since 1978, says it
best.
“We are highlighting something that has
been here from the beginning,” she says in
explaining the support provided to the stu-
dents. “It is the spirit of this university, a
place of genuine humanity, where I can
always find someone willing to help a stu-
dent.”