By Natalie Lloyd

Reporter

Every student and staff at CSU Bakersfield should have received the Administrator Message in their email (if their email is updated on their mycsub) on the water conservation on the CSUB campus. I believe CSUB should be considered our second home, since we do spend a great deal of time here. Plus, everyone should be taking precautions in conserving the water not only at home but at school as well.

With as much time a student devotes at school, little things can be done to help the water conservation. For example: reporting broken sprinklers (by calling facilities 654-2522), taking shorter showers at the SRC, making sure faucets turn off after use etc. California is in a drought people! It has been, and it is about time to make this a call for arms to help make conserving water a priority.

Let’s all open our eyes and hearts and become aware to help out with this major issue! This should be on top of our lists. Let’s replace checking our Facebook statuses with checking www.calwater.com or www.water.ca.gov. These are both informative websites that pop up when searching California water. You can even get an App for the water.ca.gov website. Now, how easy is that? My main idea is to replace the grass around the amphitheater with Astroturf because: One, it would cut back on a lot of water; two, (although costly) it would be beneficial in the long run like solar panels; and three, it would make it easier for students to walk on when graduating.

Another way to help out could be to write letters to the administrators about different types of gardens to lower water usage, or any other ideas for landscaping to help lower the use of water on campus. This can be found within the administrative email. Also, please take two minutes away from social media to do the survey in the email. It is fast, easy, and helpful. This drought is not going to get any better not unless we do something to conserve the water. Rain is not coming so water will have to be saved until those days come.

I recently spoke with a student, Allison Stutsman, 27, liberal studies major about her opinion on the drought and her thoughts on CSUB’s course of action it should take on conserving water. “I noticed they drained the pond, and it made me sad, but they are trying I guess” she said. “The shade of the trees around campus is wonderful. I would hate to see them disappear”. I agree that CSUB is a very beautiful green campus, but the trees are more important than rolling hills of green grass; so watering at night would be an improvement. It would also cut down on the water evaporating during the day. Biochemistry assistant Professor, Sarah Forester, 35, didn’t want to come off as too negative but the standing water round campus is something she has observed and knows that isn’t good for the drought we are in plus it attracts mosquitos.

Also, right now is the critical time to conserve water; it has to happen now. Forester recently visited CSU Fullerton and the campus was beautiful due to the vast amounts of succulent plants: cacti, Queen Victoria Agave, etc., which are all drought tolerant plants. Drought tolerant plants are a great idea to replace the plants around campus to help with the drought along with rocks and woodchips within the planters. Next year could be the year we completely run out of water; therefore, we should start conserving water now.