With all the renovations and additions the campus of The University of Texas at El Paso has experienced recently comes increased work to maintain the landscape in peak condition. “Adopt a Landscape” is a new initiative presented by the Center for Environmental Resource Management that aims to do just that with the help of the university community.

“The campus transformation is beautiful, but it’s created a lot more work,” said Mara Cohn, program manager at UTEP’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, in an interview with UTEP News. “All of us need to make it our responsibility to keep the campus looking really great. We need to do our part, even if it’s just picking up a piece of trash.”

Cohn developed the idea that is now being put into effect by CERM. The invitation was extended to all students, faculty members and staff to adopt a green area and get involved in keeping that area weed free.

CERM, in conjunction with Facility Services will provide training to people interested in becoming a part of this initiative.

The training consists of learning how to recognize weeds and then cleaning up assigned locations around campus.

“If we are to ask people to pull out weeds, we need to give them a little bit of training,” said Luis Perez, CERM manager. “We need to make sure they know what a weed is.”

The danger of not being able to distinguish a weed from a plant is that person may remove a plant that is intended to be part of a specific landscape.

The first training on recognizing weeds was given this past Saturday, Oct. 10. Bruce Erhard, UTEP’s grounds manager, was in charge of providing this training. With more than 40 years of experience as a horticulturalist, Erhard will be giving various training sessions on how to distinguish a common weed from UTEP’s unique desert plants.

Upcoming training dates are have not been announced, but they will most likely take place during the weekends.

The idea is that these individuals will be responsible for the upkeep of that certain area for the rest of the semester.

“The real benefit is in pride to the university,” Perez said. “(It) is in people feeling good, it is about coming together as a whole. Take ownership and have the population here on UTEP more involved.”

Perez’s sentiment of not only keeping the campus beautiful, but doing it in a way that brings students, faculty and staff together was met positively.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Alan Reveles, senior psychology major. “It’s a great way to internalize the effort and allow students to be more personally involved in the upkeep of their campus.”

The initiative is way for the community to address what some students perceive as a lack of school spirit on campus.

“Because UTEP is a commuter school, I don’t think there is enough of an emotional stake in the way UTEP looks,” said Christian Alexander, freshman business major.

Valeria Terrazas may be reached at [email protected].