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Nashville, Tenn. - When the sun shines on the rooftop at Vanderbilts Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center, it means a little more to Marie Casares.Casares, a former member of the Commodores womens tennis program (2011-15), played a role in pushing Vanderbilt athletics to the forefront of sustainable energy on campus. Two years ago, she proposed the installation of solar panels atop the Currey Tennis Center, where she once starred as a Commodore student-athlete. The panels have greatly reduced the buildings energy consumption, and they could be the precursor to a renewable energy movement across Vanderbilts campus.For Casares, the sun-soaked panels atop the Currey Center represent her energy-friendly way of giving back. Now she hopes the project will serve as a catalyst for a sea of change at Vanderbilt, and beyond. There are so many resources we could use to make energy clean and make everything renewable, Casares said. Thats a change we should start making.The project began in the fall of 2014 with the help of Vanderbilts Green Fund program. The Green Fund is money set aside by VU Facilities and Dean of Students office to address student-initiated energy conservation projects. Students propose projects with environmental and economic benefits to a student-led committee that works closely with Vanderbilts Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO) and the Campus Energy Manager. The group determines which projects receive funding and then manages their subsequent installation. Engineering students like Casares are particularly encouraged to craft proposals.In cultivating an idea, Casares neednt look far for inspiration. Her father, Esteban, is an electric engineer in the familys native Ecuador, and he runs a 4,320-panel solar plant in Maries hometown of Quito. In a sense, solar energy runs in Casares family. That was music to the ears of Geoff Macdonald, the longtime Vanderbilt tennis coach and a proponent of solar technology. So Macdonald and Casares put their heads together and came up with a way to impact the Commodores tennis facility.By the fall of 2014, Casares had already become a decorated student-athlete at Vanderbilt. As a junior during the 2013-14 season, she set school records in single match wins (32) and combined wins (60). Casares would go on to deliver the point that clinched Vanderbilts most recent SEC championship in April 2015. That year she helped carry the Commodores to the programs first NCAA title, after which Casares earned All-Tournament honors. Her love for tennis dated back to childhood, and it made it easier for her to pinpoint a Green Fund proposal. I had to provide an idea of where the project would be and what it would do, Casares said. So since its something close to my heart, I proposed the tennis center.A determined Casares wrote and submitted a two-page proposal for the Green Fund in Dec. 2014. She called for the installation of solar panels that could both generate electricity and help heat the buildings water. Casares estimated that the project would pay for itself in five-to-seven years. Marie did a phenomenal proposal, Macdonald said. It was scientific, it was researched, it described how much money it would save. It was just amazing.The solar project would be the first of its kind at Vanderbilt, and Casares noted the importance of its promotion at an athletic facility. That angle could help garner publicity and spark a bigger conversation about renewable energy on campus. Even if a small project like this one, one of the smallest of the proposed projects, gets built, it can spark a fire of good, sustainable and renewable energy alternatives here at Vanderbilt, Casares wrote.It wasnt long before Casares received good news: the Green Fund Working Group, comprised of six administrators, six students and a faculty member, approved the approximately $80,000 funding needed for the project. Crews installed the first panels on the Currey Center roof in the fall of 2015 and the second set this fall. In all, 67 Solar Laminate PVL panels and four SunMaxx Thermopower panels were placed on the roof. According to Macdonald, the panels are built to last 25 years, and the early returns suggest a wise investment: in its first three months, the system cut natural gas consumption at the Currey Center by 40 percent.Those benefits have shown just how impactful similar projects could be across campus. Look at the McGugin Center, Macdonald said. Look at Memorial Gymnasium. Theres so much roof space here. Itd be wonderful if we could somehow get more solar energy at Vanderbilt.Campus energy experts agree. Michael P. Vandenbergh, the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, is a leading scholar in environmental and energy law and the director of the universitys Climate Change Research Network. Vandenbergh said its important for people to witness the true power of solar energy, which is why the Currey Center project has the potential to spark change.People need to see evidence of progress in order to want to invest time and energy in other projects, Vandenbergh said. Solar power has come to represent a very forward-looking way of thinking about the future. Its something thats very attractive to potential applicants at Vanderbilt, and even faculty and staff. It gives us a chance to envision a kind of campus that we can be proud of.Now a civil engineer in her native Ecuador, Casares has already recognized the impact of the tennis center project back in the states. Last month, a sophomore in Vanderbilts engineering program emailed Casares to inquire about her experience with the Green Fund. That student, too, hopes to spearhead a similar project, one that could likewise illustrate the untapped potential of renewable energy at Vanderbilt.That impact brings a sense of pride to Casares. Two years ago, a Vanderbilt tennis player simply wanted to make a difference. Soon, that difference might be felt all across campus.For me, it came from a place of caring -- caring about the world, about Vanderbilt, about a certain place in the tennis center, Casares said. I think its very powerful. I can already see the change. Ray Nitschke Jersey . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. 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Prominent sociologist and civil-rights activist Dr. Harry Edwards says the efforts of superstars such as Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James in using their platforms as a means for social change reflect an evolution in power among top black athletes but that action will be required to effect real change.Edwards, a professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley, told The Associated Press that athletes have the capability today that we only dreamed about in the 1960s when only one or two athletes even had endorsements.He dated the punctuated moments of the evolution back to the early part of the 20th century, saying it began as fights to gain legitimacy, then access, before moving on to respect and dignity -- and ultimately power.Joe Louis and Jack Johnson and Jesse Owens struggled for legitimacy, Edwards said. Then you began this struggle for access. Which is what Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby and Kenny Washington and all those guys were involved in. In the 1960s, the struggle was for respect and dignity.Now the struggle is for power. And these men have power. So they have a different forum than we had in the late 1960s to be able to go on network television and make a statement concerning violence and the killing of black men, women and children in this country. ... Thats an exercise of power.Anthony, the New York Knicks star forward, is taking a break Monday from his preparations with the U.S. Olympic basketball team to host a meeting in Los Angeles with athletes, politicians and people in the community to advance the conversation about what he has called a broken system.Anthonys meeting in Los Angeles coincides with the latest stop on the Olympic mens team exhibition schedule as the Americans prepare for the Rio Games.Edwards pointed to the need for progress on both an individual and collective level. He said trust and respect needs to be built between individuals and police and that both sides need to acknowledge wrongdoing. There are criminals in the community who deserve to be arrested and rogue officers who need to be held accountable for excessive force, he said.The bottom line of any step is the voting booth, Edwards said.If youre out there marching up and down the street with Black Lives Matter and then dont go to the polls to vote out the mayor of Ferguson, to vote out the sheriff of Milwaukee County or whatever, then ... youre marching into a cul-de-sac, Edwards said. When you march into a cul-de-sac and just come back out angry, youre not a member of a movement because its not going anywhere. Youre a member of a mob.And the difference in a representative democracy between a movement and a mob is whether you follow through with the actions necessary to make the changes that youve been trying to convince people are the correct direction to go.The newfound power of todays athlete comes from monetary wealth, celebrity status and having the vehicle of social media to communicate directly with the masses. They can reach hordes of people, encouraging them to get involved in social change.Anthony, James, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade gave an anti-violence speech at the ESPYS and expressed their support of the values behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Missouri football players threatened to boyycott games last year in support of student groups protesting the schools racial environment, and Missouri president Timothy Wolfe eventually retired.dddddddddddd Serena Williams spoke out against the violence at Wimbledon. Members of the WNBAs Indiana Fever, New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury recently wore black warm-up shirts in the wake of recent shootings by and against police officers and were initially fined by the league.The WNBA rescinded the fines after a public backlash.It is almost economically impossible to ignore todays athletes as the power they wield reaches further than their bank accounts.James is worth millions of dollars to the Cleveland economy as the success of the Cavaliers motivates thousands of people to spend. The Cavs attendance ranked No. 2 in the league in 2009-10 and the past two seasons but dipped as low as No. 22 during James four years with the Miami Heat.Athletes influence goes beyond promoting merchandise and ticket sales.Social media allows athletes to directly communicate with millions of followers with a few keystrokes. Edwards explained that ISIS has used social media in a similar way to recruit self-radicalized people. The difference is in the message.Dr. Joseph Cooper, an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, echoed Edwards in saying any major social policy -- civil rights movement, feminist movement, passage of Title IX -- began with multiple conversations.But there must be action behind the words. Both said that is the next step in the process.Cooper called for sustained engagement from athletes on whatever level they are comfortable -- such as continuing the conversation, meeting with groups like Black Lives Matter, the NAACP and 100 Black Men, and identifying specific issues and targeting ways to improve them. Cooper also discussed the need to have benchmarks in which progress can be measured.All these athletes say we care about the Black Lives Matter movement. In a year from now, we want to see that youve actually been continuing in championing the support, Cooper said. Muhammad Alis legacy is a great example of how he didnt rest on his laurels in making one decision and saying OK, thats enough.In a concise manner, the steps forward are sustained engagement. What that looks like for each individual athlete and each community will be different. But it definitely involves tangible action, civic responsibility and engagement and accountability measures. The call for accountability has to be followed up with actual consequences if certain things arent done.Edwards said sports have become a religion in this country and around the world, giving athletes more influence than in the past. He believes as walking corporations they carry more weight than the doctor up the street or the lawyer around the corner or even the community organizer.Sports in modern societies really amount to secular religions, Edwards said. Athletes have a phenomenal megaphone. ... So that obligation to speak up, especially in regards to the African-American outcomes and interests, is critical.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '