Students at McGill University opted for a cleaner campus last week when they endorsed plans to create a Sustainable Projects Fund.

The fund requires McGill students pay 50 cents per credit, up to a maximum of $7.50 a semester, to go towards a fund to finance sustainability initiatives.

The money is essentially put into a pot, supervised by a working group of eight people comprising students and administration. Any member of the McGill community can submit a letter of intent for the group to review and provide feedback on how the funds should be spent.

“The best part is the group of eight people is not a voting group — it’s a parity,” Jonathan Glencross, a third-year environment student who spearheaded the fund, noted. “The most important part is consensus. They all have to agree to the proposal or the project.”

Seventy-nine per cent of undergraduate students at McGill voted in favour of the referendum, with the second highest turnout for a referendum ever, University officials confirmed.

“I went to visit the undergraduate students and the [executives] and they were incredibly supportive of this — even in just bringing the referendum question to the table,” Jim Nicell, associate vice-principal of University Services, said. “On top of that, Jonathan went to visit each and every student organization, so their support was uniformly strong across the board.”

As of now, Western has no comparable fund. However, Holly Stover, EnviroWestern co-ordinator was optimistic about McGill’s inception.

“Being a strong advocate of measures to increase sustainability, I think this is a really positive action to fuel campus sustainability,” Stover said.

She added one must consider student opinion in regards to rising tuition, before implementing a fee of which students are unable to opt out.

“Of course, student opinion and rights need to be respected, as well as sensitivity around rising tuition fees,” Stover, said. “However, when you consider an extra $7 versus the increases we are seeing recently of around $200 per year for most Ontario undergraduate tuition, the cost of a meal seems like very little to help institute positive environmental change.”