[352] MTSU News Release: MTSU Campus Rec to Showcase Clean, Green Workout Machines on St. Patrick's Day

Release date: March 11, 2010


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Campus Rec contact: Jenny Crouch, 615-904-8472 or jcrouch@mtsu.edu

MTSU Campus Rec to Showcase Clean, Green
Workout Machines on St. Patrick’s Day


(MURFREESBORO, TN) – MTSU is definitely going green, and clean, on St. Patrick’s Day and beyond.
Funds generated by the $8-per-student Clean Energy fee each semester are helping MTSU become the first university and recreation facility in Tennessee to use a system that converts human energy into a usable form of renewable energy.
Since Feb. 19, students, faculty and staff have been using five Precor USA elliptical workout machines to generate clean energy and electricity in MTSU’s Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center.
On Wednesday, March 17, at 3 p.m., Campus Recreation officials will showcase the going-green concept in a special presentation to the eight-member Clean Energy Committee and other campus officials, including Drs. Deb Sells and Gene Fitch, the respective leaders of Student Affairs and Student Life.
With regular use, an elliptical machine using ReRev technology will generate one kilowatt hour of electricity every two days, according to documents provided by the company. That’s the same energy it takes to power a laptop for 24 hours or a vacuum cleaner for 45 minutes.
Using $30,000 from the Clean Energy grant and $6,650 from the Campus Rec budget, MTSU purchased the ReRev system for $36,650, Campus Rec officials said.
Jenny Crouch, Campus Rec marketing and accessibility coordinator, said she is hopeful that a representative from Florida-based ReRev, would attend the event and explain the technology.
MTSU and the universities of Florida, Oregon, Nebraska, Kentucky and Kansas, along with at least five other U.S. universities, are part of a higher-education trend to go green in recreation facilities. Texas State University at San Marcos is taking the greenest route with the purchase of 30 machines in December.

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Media welcomed.

With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.


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