modern campus life

In modern campus life, with the graduation of students, a lot of useful resources are discarded after usage or even when they are still like new, which causes a great waste and even pollutes the environment. However, there are still many new students who need these resources and have to spend numerous money to get the similar or even same resources.

In the collection and distribution of second-hand resources, individual students do not have advantages. If recycling and auctions are organized, it will not only benefit students, but also generate revenue to support charitable activities.

The funding program “Campus Castoffs” is an organization meant to gather the donations from graduating students. They recycle things like clothes, computers, furniture and other stuffs in order to earn incomes for charity. The aim of this funding activity is to sponsor campus student organizations or donate to charity by collecting castoffs and pricing the goods for sale. Usually, this process takes four steps:

Gathering and categorizing castoffs

· Determine the recycling process

· Identify castoffs’ categories and categorize them

 

Cleaning and pricing the goods

· Decide on cleaning staff

· Determine the price of the castoffs

 

Attracting students and organizing a sale

· Decide how to promote the campaign

· Determine the activity site

 

Keep tract of the income and decide the usage

· Confirm activity income

· Determine the use of revenue

 

 

My topic:

“Campus Castoffs” is a fund-raising program that has worked in a number of college campuses. It involves gathering clothes, computers, furniture, and other unwanted items prior to graduation. On some campuses as much as 40 tons of waste have been turned into large cash donations. Assume that you are part of a campus team investigating the possibility of a “Trash to Treasure” sale in May. Analyze the financial aspects of gathering castoffs, organizing a sale, pricing the goods, and keeping track of the income that will become a gift to your campus student organization or to a charity your team names.

 

The situation:

Open the web page, enter the keywords of second-hand books/computers, and there would pop up hundreds of web pages. “lacking of clothes and books” is a common problem for many school students. Some students are still struggling to afford the high cost of living even though they could have or already had financial aids for tuition fees. They think carefully every time they buy books, clothes and other electronic products or groceries for daily use. Every penny is used with calculation. But as each year’s graduates leave school, many valuable items are thrown away despite their conditions. These could be chairs, electronics, or old books, or lots of clothing. If these resources can be integrated and utilized, then they can provide poor students with cheap and affordable purchasing ways and reduce wasting, which not only protects the environment, but also reduces the economic burden for poor students. As the Yvonne Augustsson posted in “Benefits of the Secondhand Clothing Industry” that, “The secondhand clothing industry’s environment benefits range from fewer carbon emissions to saving water and reducing waste” (Yvonne Augustsson 2017). However, the donation of goods is not a simple “exchange”, but requires a professional donation process. From recycling, cleaning, disinfection, transportation to the success of donation, each item has a long way to go, and even produces expensive costs.

Gathering and categorizing castoffs

Many students don’t often stay in school, so how to inform them about second-hand donations is a very important issue. It is a good way to send email notifications through the list of graduated students each year. We can also apply to the school for site to organize donations, distribute flyers and posters, and get more students involved. In terms of expanding publicity, the social accounts of schools and organizations are also good ways to increase interaction and promote donations, such as posting tweets on facebook and twitter, and encouraging participation. Schools can also set up donation boxes in the vicinity of the main teaching building so that students can make donations quickly and easily while attending classes. To encourage the enthusiasm of graduate students, schools can provide awards and school souvenirs to encourage graduates to participate. With the donations of graduates, poor students can spend less money to improve their living conditions. The organization can even set up a food bank to help poor students. According to the author Jessri Mahsa wrote in the investigation report ” Nutritional Quality and Price of Food Hampers Distributed by a Campus Food Bank: A Canadian Experience” that, “the requirements of milk and alternatives and meat and alternatives were not met for students”(Jessri Mahsa 287).

 

Cleaning and pricing the goods

Donated items need to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before they can be used. For example, only after sorting, cleaning, and disinfecting those old clothes can students use them with safely. Otherwise they may cause skin inflammation and various possible infections. Moreover, it cannot be ruled out that the donated clothes are damaged or moldy. Therefore, it is necessary to hire specialized personnel to sort and clean these clothes. Other donated items, such as electronic products, must also be staffed to verify availability and security. Considering the cleanness, they must also be disinfected before it can be used by students. These aspects determine the need for professional classification, testing and disinfection personnel.

When pricing items, organizations should also reduce profits as much as possible to care for poor students.

 

Figure 1 “School Poverty Level” (Tom Snyder 2015)

 

Attracting students and organizing a sale

Taking into account the process of sorting, cleaning, testing and disinfection, the pricing of these items should be slightly higher than these total values. But recruiting volunteers to complete these tasks is also feasible. Compared with the original price, second-hand recycled goods still enjoy a great advantage. There is still much room for development by using donations to reduce the economic burden of students.

 

Conclusion (and recommendations, if applicable)

In the process of calling for donations, organizations can seek help from the school, use the school’s sites to organize some promotional activities, or ask the school to send graduates emails to organize fundraising activities. In the process of processing donated items, organizations can hire specialized personnel to classify, clean, inspect, and sanitize donated items to ensure availability. Volunteers can also be recruited to complete these tasks. Finally, the organization’s income can be used to help poor students complete their studies, or to set scholarships for poor students to encourage them getting good grades.

References

Augustsson, Yvonne. “Blog.” Lessening the Harmful Environmental Effects of the Clothing Industry – Planet Aid, Inc. 20 Jan. 2017. 09 Mar. 2019 <https://www.planetaid.org/blog/benefits-of-the-second-hand-clothing-industry>.

Mahsa, Jessri. “Nutritional Quality and Price of Food Hampers Distributed by a Campus Food Bank: A Canadian Experience.” Ebscohost. June 2014. UNIVERSITY of Alberta. 9 Mar. 2019 <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=bb5aabfc-18e3-4bbe-b260-6fd2d536863b%40sdc-v-sessmgr04&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=96994777>.

 

Snyder, Tom. “NCES Blog.” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. 16 Apr. 2015. National Center for Education Statistics. 09 Mar. 2019 <https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/free-or-reduced-price-lunch-a-proxy-for-poverty>.