William & Mary recently awarded funding to nine projects that will help advance sustainability efforts on the university’s campus. 

The Green Fee awards presented during the fall 2024 semester are being used toward efforts ranging from installing native plants to improving refuse collection.

The W&M Green Fee program has been providing funding to the campus community since its establishment in 2008. It is part of the university’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, conservation and the environment. In 2025, William & Mary is furthering that commitment through its Year of the Environment. 

The following descriptions were taken from the project proposals and edited to comply with the style used by W&M News.

Substitution of Invasive Japanese Privets with Non-invasive Plants Adjacent to 602 College Terrace

$1,200 to Madeleine Fernandez ’28, Davey Mazur ’28, Tony Orband, Associate Director of Grounds & Gardens, and Linda Morse, Full Teaching Professor of Geology

This project protects W&M natural spaces by clearing out invasive Japanese privets on W&M land adjacent to 602 College Terrace. Green Fee funds will allow for the purchase of native plants to replace the removed privets. The invasive Japanese privet spreads aggressively, encroaching upon native vegetation. The Japanese privet is not a significant host plant, meaning that few species use it as a source for food, shelter or reproduction. Volunteers from the student body and the greater Williamsburg community will remove the Japanese privets in March 2025 and replant native plants in April 2025. Replacement of the existing Japanese privets with native species will greatly enhance the productivity of the campus woods by promoting a greater presence of animal species.

 Expanding Campus Event Composting with Interior Bins

$1,270 to Aayla Kastning ’26 and Elliot Durham ’25, Dining Sustainability Interns, and Advisor Isabella Chalfant, Aramark Sustainability Manager

The university’s composting program currently consists of 22 public compost bins located across campus that are managed by the dining sustainability interns. Upon request, these bins are removed from their locations for use at events, limiting access to compost bins around campus. This Green Fee supports the purchase of 10 new compost bins to expand on-campus event composting, which will help reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills from campus.

Installation of Native Plants Around Ravine Across College Terrace from the W&M Alumni House

$18,000 to Dylan Gurl ’25, Libby Henrickson ’25, and Advisors Tony Orband, Associate Director of Grounds & Gardens, and Tracy Melton ’85

Volunteers from William & Mary, the Williamsburg community and Grounds & Gardens staff will coordinate to remove invasive species from the large green space near College Terrace, Green & Gold Village and the Jimmye Laycock Football Center, replacing them with plantings of native plants. These will reduce erosion, problematic sedimentation and provide habitat /food resources for local wildlife. The project will further William & Mary’s commitment to sustainability through carbon capture, heat-absorption and support for native species. This project follows in the footsteps of past and ongoing restoration efforts by groups such as the Crim Dell Restoration Committee and Virginia Master Naturalists, who now have put several hundreds of hours into removing species such as bamboo and wisteria to repair habitat for native pollinators, birds and small mammals.

Fixit Bike Pump Repair

$5,082 to Aayla Kastning ’26, Nicholas DeSante ’26, Noa Rudisch ’27, Jackson Smith ’25 and Aggie Augustine ’26, Student Assembly’s Department of Sustainability, and Advisor Bill Horacio, Director of Parking, Transportation & Tribe Card Services

Originally conceived and installed by the W&M Bike Alliance, many of the Fixit Bike Repair Stations across campus have unfortunately fallen into disrepair over the past few years. In order to provide adequate tools to students reliant on biking around campus and to encourage more sustainable transportation methods among the student body, each Fixit station will be properly restored to full functionality. In addition to decreasing the campus community’s reliance on fossil fuels caused by driving, the repaired Fixit stations will also alleviate the costs of bikers purchasing their own bike pumps and other bike maintenance tools. Overall, this project supports biking as a safe, sustainable and healthy mode of transportation and recreation that is sure to benefit the entire W&M community.

Ceramics Studio Clay Reclamation Wash Station

$3,688 to Christopher Wagner, Art & Art History Technician, Mike Jabbur, Professor of Ceramics, and Megan Beagle, Environmental Health and Safety

This will provide the funding to purchase a self-contained ceramics wash station. The wash station will recycle water used to clean ceramics equipment so that particulate isn’t added to the wastewater. Through a series of filters, the particulate can be captured and ultimately reused in future clay mixing. This unit will not only provide an additional wash station for ceramics classes, but it will allow for less water consumption for cleaning, less particulate down the drain and more clay to be reclaimed for future use.

Improving W&M Campus Refuse Stream Collections

$89,861 to Tony Orband, Associate Director of Grounds & Gardens

Few people think about the daily campus trash collection operation unless it becomes a problem, and for good reason. The W&M campus is so beautiful that most sidewalk receptacles are ignored until they overflow or until a local woodland critter pops up from a scavenge quick enough to make you jump. Every day, our Waste & Recycling crew manually collects refuse across campus using highway-rated trucks on pedestrian walks. We’ll update the vehicle, collection method and add new receptacles. This will set us on a path towards better service, an improved aesthetic and greater cleanliness. Finally, this upgrade will enhance our waste stream management with new data collection opportunities.

Accessibility Rocks: Advancing Geoscience Outreach and Education in the W&M Geology Rock Garden

$17,000 to Tori George ’25, and advisors Chuck Bailey, Professor of Geology and Department Chair, and Clem Hamelin, Assistant Professor of Geology

Accessibility Rocks! The Geology Rock Garden is going to become a more accessible environment for students with help from the W&M Green Fee funds. The Geology Rock Garden has been a hidden gem on campus since 2017, but it is time to let it shine with a new gravel base for easier navigation, accessible entrances and seating for visitors, and informative signage to increase educational outreach for the natural world. This project is a multi-faceted collaboration with the geology department, architecture students and the W&M Committee of Sustainability. Our goal is to turn the Geology Rock Garden into a more inclusive space where students and visitors can strengthen their scientific understanding in a relaxing and accommodating environment. Increasing physical accessibility and educational access to the Geology Rock Garden gives W&M students and visitors a safe outdoor environment to expand their knowledge about Earth and its processes.

Investigating Insect Diversity on William & Mary’s Campus

$5,000 to Kristin Dunn, Assistant Teaching Professor of Biology, and Lisa Treidel, Assistant Professor of Biology

This project will create a William & Mary campus insect reference collection to be used in research and teaching. We will highlight the importance of greenspaces on campus by examining insect diversity in these spaces and comparing this with what is found near construction zones and highly developed areas of campus. Green Fee funds will be used to purchase insect collecting and preservation equipment, including nets, pins, vials, traps and more. We are excited to recruit students to help in all stages of the project, who will receive training in insect collection, preservation and identification. This project will run for one year to collect across the seasons.

Determining the Role of Spiders in Transferring Contaminants from Aquatic to Terrestrial Ecosystems

$15,000 Sophie Rabinowicz and Max Rollfinke, Master of Science Degree Candidates in Biology, and Advisors Dan Cristol, Chancellor Professor of Biology and James Skelton, Assistant Professor of Biology

Contaminants and sewage have polluted waterways on William & Mary’s campus and in the Williamsburg area, including Crim Dell and Lake Matoaka. Recent studies suggest that spiders may transfer pollutants from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems by preying on aquatic insects, potentially exposing insectivorous birds and other land animals to aquatic pollution. This study will use Green Fee funds to extract, amplify and sequence DNA of prey found in the digestive tracts of spiders. The results from this study, in which a technique called “DNA metabarcoding” will be used to identify the animals that the spiders have eaten, will determine how spiders are transferring pollutants to terrestrial species by analyzing the frequency at which terrestrial spiders consume aquatic insects. These findings will provide insights into the potential movement of pollution across stream-side ecosystems and the broader impact of frequent chemical and sewage spills on the land that surrounds our waterways.