PSU's 100th Apple Day celebration takes on a green theme

Pittsburg State University will celebrate its 100th Apple Day on Thursday, March 1, with both a tribute to its rich past and an eye to an environmentally responsible future. The day’s “green” theme is a nod to a new university commitment to improve resource and energy conservation across campus.

Apple Day, the university’s oldest tradition, commemorates an event just four years after the institution’s founding that helped secure the fledgling school’s future. The story of this event and how it became associated with America’s favorite fruit have become a central part of the campus lore. (For the Apple Day story, go to http://www.pittstate.edu/spotlight/1stappleday.html).

While the Apple Day story will certainly be part of this week’s observance, the focus is definitely the future and the kind of world we will leave our grandchildren. The keynote speaker for the Apple Day Convocation at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, in McCray Recital Hall will be Ruth Stinson. Stinson, a PSU alumnus, is an environmental consultant in the Kansas City area. Stinson is the founder and CEO of the Stinson Environmental Group. She will speak on “Foundation for the Future: an Environmental Perspective.”

Also at the convocation, the university will honor three persons with its Distinguished Service Awards; a number of students with the 2007 Golden Gorilla Awards and three faculty with the 2007 Outstanding Faculty Awards.

The green theme continues with a 9-11 a.m. open house on Friday, March 2, for the new University Recycling Center in 206 Whitesitt Hall. The open house will give faculty, staff and students an opportunity not only to visit the new center but also to learn how campus offices can recycle materials that are currently going into the trash and ultimately into a landfill. The University Recycling Center is the first project of the University Committee on Energy and Resource Conservation that was formed by PSU President Tom Bryant last year. For more on the committee, its charge and the University Recycling Center, visit the committee’s Web site at http://www.pittstate.edu/erc/.

---Pitt State---