This Friday, Florida International University's Board of Trustees will decide whether two sports fields will be built over part of the school’s nature preserve.
Joshua Muñoz-Jiménez oversees an organic garden that encompasses a portion of the preserve on FIU’s south campus.
He started a petition that more than 8,000 students and faculty have signed opposing the development.
Jeffery Becar is one of those students. He says he signed it because the preserve is “valuable.”
“I don’t believe that FIU could call itself a green university,” he says, “and at the same time try to diminish the already small green space that they have.”
The majority of the school’s faculty senate voted in favor of the proposal on Tuesday. Some though, said that they felt their hands were tied because although they didn’t want any part of the preserve to be destroyed they were in favor of the promise of more funding for it.
The school’s chief financial officer, Ken Jessell, promised to quadruple annual funding for the preserve if the proposal is passed.
The Board of Trustees, which has the final say on the matter, is expected to vote between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Friday at the school.
