Students’ approval of a $3 fee each semester to fund an Office of Sustainability has not yet resulted in a greener campus.

The proposal for an Office of Sustainability, being drafted by Go Green Alliance, has to pass a University fees committee, the president’s office and the Board of Regents before the $3 fee is implemented and a director is hired.

“When President Adams said we can’t fund this, we put it to the students,” said Emily Karol, co-chair of Go Green Alliance.

The ballot option of a $3 fee for the Office of Sustainablity passed by more than 80 percent in March.

The draft proposal will detail what the fund is, why it is needed, how it will be used and the structure of the office, Karol said. It will also lay out how project funds will be allocated for sustainability on campus.

For help on writing the proposal, Go Green Alliance approached University administrators and directors.

For guidance on the organizational structure of the office, they turned to Shannon Wilder, director of the Office of Service-Learning.

“The idea is through collaboration, we can establish a great deal, even through difficult budget times, because you have a lot of people who are supporting an initiative,” Wilder said in a telephone interview Friday.

“I think they’ve certainly thought through a lot of strategies on how to do this and have gotten really good advice,” Wilder said. “I think it’s very clear that students are interested in this kind of initiative and want UGA to be a kind of leader in this.”

“We want to work with as many people as possible on this to make it holistically sound,” Karol said.

Go Green Alliance also spoke with the Office for Finance and Administration.

“It looks like something that’s still in development, but has merit that I think the administration will want to consider,” said Kathy Pharr, assistant vice president for finance and administration, in a telephone interview Friday.

The $180,000 generated annually from the student fee will go toward paying the director’s salary. About $50,000 is expected to go toward projects on campus.

“The main goal is to have a central area for students and staff to propose ideas on sustainability that they want to see on campus,” Karol said. “I hope that this director can facilitate the allocation and envision projects for a greener UGA.”

If the proposal is not passed – because the fees committee decides students can’t handle additional fees, for example – the document will be ready for when the economic situation improves, Karol said.

“It’s sad researching how far behind we are,” she said.

The University is about average in its sustainability practices, according to GreenReportCard.org, a Web site that identifies colleges and universities as leaders in sustainability based on independent research and voluntary responses from administrators. The University received an overall grade of C minus based on several categories in which it earned C’s, such as food and recycling, green building and student involvement.

Its only B was in transportation, and its two F’s were in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement. Other Georgia universities, including Georgia Tech and Emory University received an overall grade of B.

Go Green Alliance expects to complete the draft proposal in October. If it’s passed, the student fee will be implemented in the fall 2010, Karol said.