{"id":335277,"date":"2026-07-10T03:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/335277\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T03:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:20:14","slug":"students-and-professors-speak-out-against-florida-gulf-coast-university-artificial-turf-installation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/335277\/","title":{"rendered":"Students and professors speak out against Florida Gulf Coast University artificial turf installation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students and professors speak out against Florida Gulf Coast University artificial turf installation<\/p>\n

\"Nehilah<\/a>FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s decision to replace natural grass with artificial turf as part of a campus renovation project has sparked criticism from some students, alumni and faculty over environmental concerns. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a really stupid decision, especially since they preach about being all about environmentally friendly and all these things, and having big green areas on campus that honestly, I’ve loved since I started,\u201d said Nikolas Houser, a recent graduate of the university. <\/p>\n

The university stated that the artificial turf saves water and eliminates the need for fertilizer. University officials also say they heard from the student government ahead of the decision. <\/p>\n

Professors like Dr. James Douglass have raised concerns about the environmental impact, particularly the loss of ecosystems supported by natural grass.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing eats plastic grass, whereas the real grass, there’s little caterpillars and worms and butterflies, there’s all kind of life, a whole ecosystem that actually can live on real grass,\u201d Douglass said. <\/p>\n

Environmental professionals have also noted that artificial turf can become significantly hotter than natural grass. <\/p>\n

Dr. Nora Egan also expressed concerns about the chemicals in artificial turf.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery experiment that exposes organisms to these sort of chemicals is showing that they are toxic,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The project is expected to be completed before classes resume in the fall, but some students hope the changes will be reconsidered. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely disappointed. One of my favorite parts about this campus was seeing all the nature around us have a variety of like nature trails,\u201d said Jacob Guillette, a current student at the university.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students and professors speak out against Florida Gulf Coast University artificial turf installation FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8299,73827,138110,12657,138116,7920,138111,138112,12009,42823,104,102076,41155,57787,91536,33575,28,9149,30,29,897,138114,213,138109,14353,73692,138113,3574,138117,13853,138118,2956,13004,8301,138115,221],"class_list":["post-335277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alumni","tag-artificial-turf","tag-campus-renovation","tag-chemical","tag-chemicals","tag-decision","tag-dr-james-douglass","tag-dr-nora-egan","tag-ecosystem","tag-ecosystems","tag-entertainment","tag-environmental-concern","tag-environmental-concerns","tag-faculty","tag-fertilizer","tag-fgcu","tag-florida","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-myers","tag-jacob-guillette","tag-late-news","tag-natural-grass","tag-nature","tag-nature-trails","tag-nikolas-houser","tag-part","tag-plastic-grass","tag-professor","tag-real-grass","tag-student","tag-student-government","tag-university","tag-water-savings","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}