The Princeton Review’s recently published survey on “environmental friendliness” shows the issue is a growing concern among students applying to colleges. The published campus Greenness ratings, however, highlighted major shortcomings in our own seemingly environmentally friendly campus.
The University received a rating of 92 (out of 99), largely due to its lack of specific resources that peer institutions with larger endowments possess, such as an established sustainability officer position and environmental literacy programs.
A lack of funding is a major obstacle blocking the implementation of large-scale green projects, and the University’s relatively modest endowment (compared, for example, with Little Three schools Amherst and Williams) puts it at a huge disadvantage.
Even if the University’s current efforts are financially limited to smaller projects, more on-campus improvements can still be made. Disseminating news about successful programs is a good way to motivate alumni and potential donors, as shown in a recent article about the University’s sustainability efforts in the Wesleyan Connection. Furthermore, turning off the lights in Usdan and Pi Cafe when both locations are closed to the student body, or shutting down computers for certain hours in rarely used computer labs, are things that require policy changes by the administration and Physical Plant, but not large amounts of capital.
That’s not to say green initiatives are just the administration’s responsibility. Students and alumni cannot expect to attend a truly “green” university without making efforts themselves. Based on last year’s performance, students in EON have done an impressive job making sustainability a key issue among the University community, spearheading such successful initiatives as the “Do It in the Dark” energy saving competition amongst senior woodframes.
The surprisingly small amount of donations given by recent alumni when asked to specifically support environmental projects at the University (ten years worth of alumni forked over a grand total of $900) is proof of the fact that the job can’t be relegated to one group. Alumni, parents, and students all need to be willing to donate time and capital to the issue.
Things like driving cars less around campus, paired with an expanded RIDE program that offers service during the day, are examples of things both students and the administration can implement together. If we want to make environmentalism a real priority, it will take large and small efforts on the part of everyone. It’s the only way to live up to that catchy moniker of the “green campus.”
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