DURHAM, New Hampshire — College seniors across the United States plan to start a new graduation tradition this year: tossing their ceremonial gowns into recycling bins. For years, ecology-conscious campuses have been trying to reduce the environmental impact of commencement ceremonies by using less electricity or printing programs on recycled paper. Now, academic apparel manufacturers are jumping in with “green” options, ranging from disposable gowns that decompose quickly in soil to gowns made of recycled plastic bottles that can be reused or recycled. GREENEST COLLEGES: Princeton Review lists 286 COLLEGE BLOG: Eco-friendly acts on campus STUDENTS: Flocking to sustainability degrees, jobs The new products are an alternative to the petroleum-based polyester gowns millions of graduates buy each year, then promptly throw away or stuff into their closets. Manufacturers say the new gowns are a bit softer and more breathable than the traditional gowns, but otherwise are indistinguishable. “It feels a bit thinner which actually would be good for spring commencements because it’s going to be hot outside,” said Abbie Tumbleson, a senior at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. “It doesn’t look cheaply made.” At Oak Hall Cap and Gown in Virginia, officials settled on fabric made from recycled plastic after samples made from sustainable bamboo failed to impress customer service reps who wore them for a day. “By the end of the day, they looked like they had slept in the gowns for about two weeks,” said vice president Donna Hodges. “A lot of students will get the gown out of the bag 10 minutes before lineup, so we knew that was not going to work.” About 100 schools ordered the new gowns this spring, compared to about 1,500 who stayed with the polyester, Hodges said. University Cap and Gown in Lawrence, Massachusetts, also is offering recycled bottle gowns this year. Company president Duane Fox said his company was ahead of the curve when it began using biodegradable detergents to clean its rental gowns years ago. In designing the new gowns, the company focused on finding a fabric that could withstand multiple wearings, said Fox, who estimates that about 7% of his customers ordered the new gowns, including the University of New Hampshire and Colby College in Maine. Ensuring that students return their gowns is key, because otherwise companies are just replacing bottles in landfills with fabric in landfills, said the Sierra Club ‘s Jennifer Schwab. “It’s always better to reuse. We don’t really want to put new items into the waste stream, period, if we can help it,” she said. She also is not a fan of the type of gown being sold by Minneapolis-based Jostens, which also plans to donate $1 to an environmental cause each time graduates enter a code printed on the gown’s tag. Its gowns are made of acetate a material made from sustainably harvested trees that will decompose in a landfill within a year. “It’s better than a polyester gown that’s not biodegradable; but first and foremost, there’s probably enough graduation gowns floating out there that you could reuse them for several years,” she said. And even reusing the new gowns five or seven times is not ideal, she said. “That’s good for the bottom line, but that’s not really good for the environment,” she said. Jostens offers the biodegradable gowns in six colors, while the gowns made of plastic bottles are available only in black for now. Prices vary widely from school to school. For example, the University of New Hampshire charges students $16.25 for a cap and gown, while the University of Vermont, in the adjoining state, charges $34. The wholesale price of “green” gowns usually is a few dollars more than polyester, but some schools have chosen not to pass along the increase to students. At the University of Vermont bookstore, a gown from Oak Hall is on display along with 23 plastic bottles to represent how many are recycled to make the fabric. Bookstore director Jay Menninger said the gowns cost the school about $2 more each, but students were not charged more. Though his school and others will return the gowns to Oak Hall to be recycled into new fabric, he expects most students will bypass the recycling bins he hopes to set up near the outdoor ceremony. “After commencement, they’re out of here. They don’t want to go put something in a box,” he said. Elaine Kiesewetter, a senior at UNH, said she would be more likely to give her gown to a younger friend so they could save money rather than turn it in. She received her gown last month and was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t look like it was made from plastic. “Especially from far away, no one will know,” she said. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The alarming spike in demand for mental health services on college campuses that began about a decade ago appears to be leveling off, a just-released survey of counseling center directors suggests. The findings of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors’ 2008-9 poll of hundreds of member institutions point to a new stasis, where the number of students arriving on campuses in need of counseling or psychotropic medications is remaining constant from year to year, though still likely to keep counseling centers strained. STUDY: Students more stressed now than during Depression SUICIDE SCHOOL? Cornell sees 6 deaths in 6 months “In the last few years, I think we’ve seen stabilization,” said Victor M. Barr, the survey’s lead author and a director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of students to see, just that it doesn’t seem like it’s changing as rapidly as a few years ago.” The survey was sent to members at 752 institutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. In all, 363 responded. Across all respondents, 10.2% of students sought counseling during the 2008-9 academic year, about the same as in the directors group’s two previous surveys. At institutions with fewer than 1,500 students, an average of 18.3% of students sought counseling. At institutions with enrollments of more than 35,000, it was 7.2%. (Another study, the National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, found that 10.4% of students at four-year institutions sought help in 2008-9.) Perhaps related to the stable proportion of students seeking counseling was a decline in the perception by counseling center directors that mental health problems were on the rise at their institutions. In this year’s survey, 94% of respondents said “the number of students with severe psychological problems is [a] growing concern on their campuses.” In the 2007-8 survey, it was 96%. In 2006-7, it was 97%. ON THE WEB: College suicides a call to action INSIDE HIGHER ED: What spurs violence like Virginia Tech, Alabama? Despite the onslaught of national and local economic problems during the survey year, fewer counseling jobs were cut than were added. Respondents reported a total of 82 new professional clinical positions created, while 34 were lost. “We saw these small gains in staffing, but I’m not sure the same thing will happen in our next survey because of economic conditions,” Barr said. Counseling services aren’t a popular place to cut budgets, he added, but they’re not likely to be the first place where institutions direct funds, either. Colleges aren’t out of the woods yet. Seventy-three percent of respondents said there had been an increase in the last year in the number of students already on psychotropic medications who were seeking counseling services, and 71% said they thought the number of students with severe psychological problems had risen during the survey year. The most common conditions seen in students were depression (seen in 37.5% of students visiting a counseling center), anxiety (36.8 percent) and relationship issues (35.9 percent). Nearly a quarter of patients seen in counseling centers were taking psychotropic medications.

Be there at the Orthodox Union’s (OU) National Conference between April 25 and 26. Come and know about online education, a cost-saving program. The national conference on online education is being presented by the Orthodox Union’s Department of Day School

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