Problems

Most UBD students tend to leave the UBD campus for lunch, coffee and other breaks and choose to drive instead of using public transportation. They leave the campus because they are not satisfied with the limited range of food available at the UBD cafeteria and canteen. They also leave the campus to go to facilities such as clinics and post offices as there are no onsite facilities at UBD that they can use. This results in UBD students frequently leaving and entering the campus, which results in wasteful fuel consumption and spending. This is a problem because fuel is a non-renewable resource and fuel reserves will not be around forever. Furthermore, the exhaust gases are bad for the environment e.g. carbon dioxide causes the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Figure 1. Average spending of fuel per week by UBD students 2005.

Possible solutions

UBD students should be encouraged to use biofuels and electric cars. They should also be encouraged to use public transportation or car-pool as often as possible. Students should be encouraged to increase their fuel efficiency by reducing their usual car speed, keeping their car tires properly inflated, planning trips properly beforehand, driving sensibly, reducing usage of car air-conditioners. Students should be encouraged to bring their own food to UBD, thus removing the need for them to leave the campus to obtain food. They should be encouraged to avoid leaving the campus for trivial or unimportant matters. They should be encouraged to study at the library or ICTC while waiting for lectures or tutorials instead of going offsite.

Actions taken

The writer informed UBD students on how they could reduce their fuel spending in various way, such as reducing usual car speed by 20km/hr, car-pooling with friends, staying in UBD for breaks during the day, switching off their engines while waiting for someone, switching off the air-conditioner when driving at night, planning routes to avoid needless traveling, arranging travelling to avoid travelling during the peak rush hour. Students were encouraged to bring their own food to UBD, and to study in the library or other areas of the university in between classes. The writer wrote a letter to the President of UBD’s student body council (Persatuan Mahasiswa Universiti) addressing the writer’s concerns regarding the limited facilities at the UBD campus. The President was informed about the various facilities that UBD students wanted or felt were
necessary to have set up in the campus. Posters were put up around UBD to inform students on the importance of fuel conservation and how one could go about conserving fuel.

Figure 2. Photograph showing students having their discussion at the campus itself.


Figure 3. Photograph showing some posters that have been put up around UBD.


Figure 4. Desirable facilities that UBD students want to be set up in UBD.