As part of the campus-wide Presidential Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, PC’s Green Hose has established a competition between the dorms to see who can cut back on their energy consumption the most. Well, the numbers are in for last month and guess who won? Senior Apartments. That’s right! Senior Apartments will win the prize for this month.

So what is the Presidential Interfaith Challenge? Well the initiative began due to this year being the 10^th anniversary of 9/11. The Interfaith Challenge’s goal is to unite different religious groups by performing community service, which is an important part of every religion. Our president says that “we can not only better our communities, we can build bridges of understanding between ourselves and our neighbors.” Certain colleges received grants to implement a year-long service project between diverse student groups. At PC, the initiative has been taken up by the office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Our project is establishing healthy habits to protect the environment. The first part of the project was to establish recycling across campus. Currently, they are trying to raise awareness about energy consumption and getting students to cut back on their usage. Over this year, more things will be added to the list of goals to protect the environment.

Also as part of the initiative, the office of Religious and Spiritual Life is trying to educate students on other religions. This semester’s focus has been on the differences between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. However, next semester the focus will be on learning about other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. There will be lectures, guest speakers, movies, and other cultural events held.

So what can you do to help? Well for starters you can make sure that you’re recycling and watching your energy usage. This is not a hard thing to do. Things like turning off the lights when you leave the room, turning off the water while you’re brushing your teeth, and taking shorter showers all help immensely. If you’re really passionate about getting further involved, stop by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and talk to Dr. Jeri Perkins about what you can do to help. The office is on the first floor of Springs, right by the door to Georgia’s parking lot.