Environemtalists from various areas of Iowa State and across Ames filled the Gallery Room of Memorial Union Wednesday night for the workshop discussion “The Greening of ISU.”

“I’m inspired to see what type of diverse crowd this type of lecture can bring. It can really act as a jump start for this campus,” said Tonia Sorensen, junior in architecture.

The workshop was led by Peggy Barlett, professor in anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I think you are at a real turning point for your university,” Barlett said. “This is a workshop. You are doing more than just sit there while I talk at you.”

Barlett began and ended the workshop with interaction from the participants. Each of the attendees were expected to stand up, introduce themselves and site one environmental issue that concerned them that day.

Later, the group of more than 70 broke up to talk one-on-one with someone else about why they chose to participate and what they envisioned for Iowa State.

Event organizers and participants said they were pleased with the amount of envronmentally concerned people participating in the lecture.

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the turnout. We had about 41 people R.S.V.P, but I didn’t expect this many people to show up,” said Whitney Sanford, one of the event’s organizers and associate professor of religioius studies. “Even those that may have come for class, this may have planted the seed.”

Barlett used her experience at Emory University as a model for the greening of Iowa State. She is one of founders of the Piedmont Project at Emory and an Ad Hoc Committee for Environmental Stewardship that contributed to the greening of Emory. The school has since created an environmental mission statement, nature walks to encourage connection between the cause and the outdoors and a faculty green lunch group that discusses issues.

She found the success at Emory came from small groups of concerned people similar to the group attending the workshop, she said.

“We can’t wait for Washintgton to make the legislation,” Barlett said. “But by bringing us together, we can start to make change.”

She urged the participants and environmentalists to not get discouraged. She said at first she didn’t believe Emory would make the changes it has.

“We were all pessimistic. We aren’t going to see green buildings [at Emory,]” Barlett said. Emory now has three green buildings on campus or in progress.

At first Barlett said she doubted herself as capabe of making sustainability changes at Emory.

“I felt I wasn’t knowledgeable enough. I’m a cultural anthropologist, not and environmental scientist,” Barlett said. “Often campus greening is not led by experts. [The leaders] mediate between the people who care and the experts.”

Barlett told participants the establishment of concerned groups and taking action is just as important as getting results.

“We need to detatch ourselves from results” she said. “Because it is the right thing to do, even if we don’t see any results.”

There was open discussion for the workshop participants to discuss what they would like to see happen at Iowa State based on Barlett’s success and suggestions.

“There’s a lot of folks here tonight that are becoming more involved in this [environmental] effort. For those of us who have been involved in this effort for years, it’s fantasic to see what we can learn from each other,” said Matt Denner, president of ISU campus greens and senior in political science.