By Michael Naughton

After seeing almost no student support last year, the Students for Environmental Action now have a new president, six committees and the desire to get more students involved.

“[The group] has been off and on, but it was really active in the early 1990s,” said Kelly Muellman, a freshman Spanish major and president of the Students for Environmental Action. “We ran some activities on campus, getting e-mail [addresses] and stuff like that. We are becoming a lot more active so people are more enticed to join.”

The group has over a dozen members, some of whom sit on one of the six committees within the student group.

“We have about 15 members and it’s a pretty good mix,” Muellman said. “We have six committees: animal rights, public relations, conservation, consumerism, recycling and renewable energy for sustainable living.”

Members of the Students for Environmental Action have become increasingly more active by helping to take on the Dell company though the “dellutied” campaign last semester.

“The campaign tried to get the Dell company to take responsibility for the waste of their used computers. A lot of computer companies ship off their waste to foreign countries [where] they are taken apart by poor foreigners,” Muellman said.

While the “dellutied” campaign involved taking on a major corporation, the Students for Environmental Action are now focused on taking on the student body of Northeastern.

The group is in the process of planning a week of activities after spring break for Northeastern students who wish to participate. One of the activities will be guest lecturer Joshua Tickell an international energy speaker from the Veggie Van Organization who will discuss using vegetable oil instead of petroleum to power cars.

“We want to get out there and promote activism and awareness,” Muellman said. “I hope these activities will help. We have an e-mail sign up list [so we can] be able to send information to people who might be interested in joining.”

The week of activities and guest speaker the Students for Environmental Action is planning on, has interested some students, but not enough to entice them to join the group.

“I would go to [the guest speaker] for class just to learn about it, but I wouldn’t join just because of all the things I am busy with on campus,” said Sharif Zeid, a senior business major. “I am a business major, so it would be good to hear the business side of the discussion too.”

Members of the group remain hopeful for the popularity and visibility of the group, both of which members expect will increase over time and with effort.

“I think it’s going to take off,” said the Chair of Renewable Energy for the Students for Environmental Action Meghan Dixon, a sophomore biology major. “I think we will be more obvious on campus and bring more environmental awareness to the Northeastern community.”

The group is already planning what they can do next year to attract more people and attention to their organization.

“The beginning of next semester, we can have a lot more early promotions. I hope to have a bigger group next year,” Muellman said.