Ashley Swanson advances sustainability on campus

The University of St. Francis (USF) Sustainability Committee is geared up for a momentous month. Considering that October is Campus Sustainability Month, the Co-Chair of the Sustainability Committee, Ashley Swanson, is amidst one of the busiest months of the year.

“I usually go heavier on events in October and April… so, those are like my two busy times of the year,” Swanson explained. 

Swanson devised multiple events for the month of October including a Beehive Glow-Up as well as a Campus Clean-up on the night of Halloween. She is also hosting the Composting Pilot Program, where food scraps from the Terrace Café and Three Oaks Bistro will be collected and taken by truck to composting facilities. This program will be ongoing from October through November. Even though she is doing many things around campus, Swanson does not want to stop there. She has bigger goals in mind.  

“The big thing that I would like to see for USF is one that they maintain that prairie that is out in Frankfort,” Swanson said. “I would also like to see the university transition to more sustainable services.” 

Swanson recently applied, as was accepted, for a Pollinator Partnership Grant to restore and reseed a portion of the Charlotte Codo Prairie in Frankfort, IL. However, much more work needs to be done before she can lay down 25 pounds of wildflower seeds that she will receive from her grant.

“I haven’t received the seeds yet, but I’m supposed to be getting them in the next month or two,” Swanson said. “I have to coordinate with a contractor to do some weed removal this fall.” 

Additionally, Swanson has to coordinate a controlled burn of the prairie in preparation to distribute the seeds. 

“We also do a controlled burn, or a prescribed burn is also what it’s called, which is basically where we burn the prairie down to the ground. And that is actually part of the native prairie lifecycle. So, we actually have to hire someone to come in and burn the prairie down to the ground periodically,” she explained. 

This project is Swanson’s most anticipated project yet. Having been awarded the grant to restore the Charlotte Codo Prairie is a big achievement for Swanson, as the prairie is more endangered than the Rainforest.

“I had never applied for a grant before in my life, and I applied for this one and I got it,” said Swanson on her achievement. “I’m like, well dang, I knew there are a bunch of people who apply for grants all the time and never get them, so that made me feel really special.” 

Swanson has put on a number of sustainability events on campus in years past. Swanson's first solo event was a Build Your Own Worm Composter event back in March of 2023. This was notably one of her most successful events. Her ambition stems from her recently found interest in sustainability. 

“It became something I was interested in during Covid. I didn’t grow up thinking about this stuff at all. I wasn’t really thinking about it as something I could do anything about,” Swanson said. 

However, her piqued interest in sustainability has grown from small acts of reducing waste into volunteer work and event planning on campus, which propelled her further into taking on bigger projects like the restoration of the prairie in Frankfort, IL. She encourages people to partake in small and feasible acts of sustainability because it is difficult to fully adjust your lifestyle. 

“It’s hard for everybody to escape from wasting things in their daily lives, like I have kids, we have to use single-use plastics,” Swanson acknowledged. “But if there is a way to get away from creating some of that waste, it would be beneficial for our small, local community, like the university.” 

Sustainability is a large part of her job as Lab Coordinator. Swanson works as Lab Coordinator for the Science Department at USF. Her role is to ensure that students have all the materials they need for their labs. Students need to maintain a sterile environment during labs, which can only be achieved through single-use plastics.

“When I first started working here, I had a big concern about how much single-use plastics that we use in the department,” Swanson said. 

Furthermore, being sustainable has its financial benefits, since reusing some materials and saving money instead of buying single-use materials and repurchasing them. 

As for the future of USF, Swanson hopes for more student outreach in her sustainability efforts. Her volunteer work has taken her far; however, she aspires to start a student-run sustainability club in the future or possibly add a Sustainability Coordinator to the campus faculty. She can’t do it all alone and the events she planned for October should help her reach her goals. 

Charolette Codo Prairie in Frankfort, IL