At 2009’s Celebration of Service Tree Dedication ceremony, Audrey Hunt was asked to speak on behalf of her peers to those in attendance. In the 30 years she’d worked at Queen’s, she had held a number of positions in different departments, so it seemed fitting that she speak for the group.

“The Queen’s spirit extends beyond the students and alumni.  I feel a great loyalty to Queen’s. I have worked here since 1979 and my husband Rick since 1982.  It’s been our livelihood all these years,” she says. “I always felt like there were great opportunities to advance. There are strong benefits to working at Queen’s and I love the energy and atmosphere — I like that there’s always young people around, even if it seems like they get younger every year.”

Mrs. Hunt began at Queen’s in temporary positions, working as a secretary in the Department of Electrical Engineering and then receptionist in Human Resources. Her first permanent job was as the secretary in the Department of Classics in 1979. There, among other responsibilities, she typed faculty members’ class notes and research reports.

“Every once in a while they’d use a word that needed the Greek alphabet,” she says with a laugh. “So, I mastered the art of changing the typewriter ball from English to Greek and back again.”

Mrs. Hunt always had her eyes set on coming opportunities so she made a point of taking advantage of every professional development course at Queen’s that would help build her skillset. She says the mix of administration, financial and managerial training courses she took were instrumental in getting her from work in Student Awards where she held 3 different positions, to the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, to her current position as the Department of Emergency Medicine’s departmental and financial administrator.

In Emergency Medicine, Mrs. Hunt manages the department’s budget, helps develop its strategic plans, supervises staff and handles a number of other responsibilities that she’s taken on over the 18 years she’s been in the position. Since the department achieved full departmental status, it has undergone significant changes, growing from 12 faculty members to 45, four support staff and many medical residents and students. Audrey Hunt has been there for all of them.

“I absolutely love this job and our faculty, staff and students. I’ve enjoyed all my jobs, but up until this one, I felt like I was moving up, like it was a progression. When I arrived here, I believed this was it,” she says. “If it had ever gotten to the point where there weren’t new challenges, I probably would have searched for something else. But, looking out, as long as the group will have me for another few years, I hope this is where I’ll retire from.”

Suggestions for profiles can be sent to Gazette editor Andrew Carroll.

A special information session in support of students who will be moving of campus next school year is being held Wednesday at the Leonard Hall dining hall foyer.

"What you need to know about moving off campus" will offer information about the Kingston Police Community Services Unit, City of Kingston services and programs, the AMS Holiday Housecheck, and Campus Security and Emergency Services’ Off-Campus Response Program. .

The event, presented by the Campus Safety Working Group, will be held from 11:30 am to 1 pm. For more information contact the Student Affairs Office at 613-533-6944 or vpdean.sa@queensu.ca.

So you’ve just finished your cup of coffee and you’re standing in front of the recycling bins wondering what goes where?

It might seem like a straightforward task but campus waste audits show that the Queen’s community could use some help to get the job done right.

Coffee cups are just one part of the waste diversion equation but it is perhaps the most noticeable issue.

As a result, a collaboration between the Queen’s Sustainability Office and the Alma Mater Society is taking aim at promoting and improving campus recycling practices

It’s a multi-pronged approach which includes a series of five videos to clear up any questions as well as highlight some important facts, including that Queen’s sent 1,800 metric tons to the landfill last year, or the equivalent of 360 adult African elephants.

“The Sustainability Office was excited to collaborate with the AMS on this initiative and hopes the videos inspire campus users to take a more active role in improving campus waste diversion rate,” says Llynwen Osborne, Waste Coordinator, Sustainability Office.

There’s a lot that can be done to reduce that amount of items going to landfill.

“The waste we generate on campus 90 per cent of it can be diverted, either to recycling – plastic, metals, glass, paper – or to compost,” says Leah Kelley, the AMS’ Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainability. “In our buildings now, we have the ability for students to divert that waste. It’s just about knowing what goes into which bin and taking those extra few seconds to properly sort it rather than toss it in the garbage.”

Proper sorting is key as any contamination, particularly for organics, results in the bin going to landfill rather than being diverted. To help with this, new, simpler signage has been introduced  in the Queen’s Centre and JDUC to show people what goes where.

Back to the coffee cup conundrum then.

“Coffee cups actually go in plastics/metals/glass, the blue bin, because it has a wax lining that makes it plastic by the perspective of our (contracted) waste company,” Ms. Kelley (Artsci’16) explains. “So approximately 1.1 million coffee cups were used last year and when you have more than 75 per cent of people not knowing how to properly get rid of them a lot of garbage is being generated. We did want to emphasize the proper way to deal with a coffee cup because sadly it is not as straightforward as we would like it to be.”

The wax-lined cup and plastic lid go in the blue bin. The sleeve, which is paper only, goes in the grey bin.

The videos are also being used to shine a light on some of the positives that have already been accomplished such as the increased organics programs involving campus locations like Queen’s Pub, and Common Ground. While some of the problems for recycling may seem complex, the solutions are rather simple.

“People generally want to do the right thing, we all want to increase our waste diversion,” says Ms. Kelley. “We are at a 42 per cent waste diversion rate when we have 90 per cent of waste that can be diverted. So we really want to emphasize this as much as possible and increase that 42 per cent diversion rate.”

There are five videos in the series covering the following topics:

• Waste Diversion
• Organics
• Common Ground Sustainability Efforts
• QP Sustainability Efforts
• What you can do to improve campus waste diversion

For further information go to the Queen's Sustainability Office website or the website for the AMS' Commission of the Environment and Sustainability.