By: Macy Hayes ’25
Being sustainable and living in New York City are two things that can seem daunting to achieve. However, Saloni Shah and Pace University are taking steps to make it interactive, educational, and fun!
Saloni Shah is a senior honors student who is double majoring in economics and political science with a minor in law. Along with that, Shah is a campus director for the other Pace University students participating in the United Nations Millennium Fellowship. Before this interview, I didn’t know much about this fellowship. I asked Shah about the fellowship itself to get a better understanding of the opportunity.
Shah said, “The United Nations Millennium Fellowship is a prestigious semester-long leadership program that encourages students to come up with a project that addresses one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations.” Her chosen project addresses SDG 13, the “Climate Action” goal. She shares, “My project focuses on reducing our carbon footprint at Pace University.” She has been granted funding by the Energy Department at Pace to have submeters placed on every resident floor of 33 Beekman.
The purpose of these submeters is to track how much energy each floor uses. With this information, Shah plans to create a web page to show students their floor energy consumption in the form of a graph that will be updated monthly. While explaining the concept, she discusses what will make the project “fun.” “Each month, students can log on and see how your floor is doing in terms of energy consumption or saving, but it will be a competition between the resident’s floors depending on how well you do. The floor that saves the most energy or consumes the least will have their place in the queue bumped up for next year’s room reservations.”
This will be an additional element added to Pace’s formula of queuing your room reservation, along with credit hours and grades. This room reservation queue is the list of students who wish to dorm the following year. If you have a higher amount of credits, you would be at the top of the list. If you have a lower amount, you would be towards the bottom. Now, Shah’s climate project is another factor. This will offer students with low credit hours, such as freshmen or students with lower grades, the chance to dorm at their top choice. The incentive of the room reservation queue is not something to disregard! After convincing Res Life to approve this idea, her next steps were to get the information about her project to dorming students, and that is where I come in!
Saloni Shah’s Climate Action project is starting next semester, in the spring of 2024. The submeters are being installed over winter break and are only in 33 Beekman as of right now. Shah mentioned, “My short-term goal is for this project to work next semester, and I wanted to create some sort of a change.” She talked about how she has been an RA for three years, working throughout the school year and summer, living almost all of the year in Pace dorms.
Throughout her time at Pace, Shah has noticed that since students are not paying for utilities, it is “acceptable” for them to leave lights on for hours while no one is home. She mentions, “Just in the past year, we implemented some changes over our past winter break, such as turning off lights and other things because students weren’t there. With that, we saw 33 Beekman’s energy rating go from a C to an A just from that.” She continues, “If people actually try to conserve energy throughout the whole year, I’m sure it can be even better, and if it works, I would want to expand it to all dorm buildings. I even have some ideas for water conservation, but that would be a long-term goal, and I would be more than willing to come back and assist with it after I graduate.”
When I learned about Shah’s project, I knew I had to help her share this sustainable message. So help Pace become more sustainable! Be a part of change! Shah’s final comments were, “If you live in the residence hall, participate in my study, turn off your lights, be active. It’s so hard to be sustainable in New York City. People can do little things like this, which would still help greatly.”
Lastly, if you are interested in the Fellowship itself, for more information, click here: https://www.millenniumfellows.org/fellowship. The 2024 to 2025 application is opening soon. Be sure to keep an eye out for a flyer on the Orca TVs about info sessions on campus. You can also contact Sue Maxam, the Assistant Provost for Wellness. She is in charge of assisting students throughout the application process for this Millennium Fellowship. If you want to find more information on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, click here: https://sdgs.un.org/goals