The Story
Bureaucracy at its Best: The College’s Committee on Sustainability
When President W. Taylor Reveley, III announced the creation of the Committee on Sustainability at the end of last year, students met the announcement with mixed feelings.
We had been asking for an administrative commitment to sustainability for ages. And while a formal office of sustianability was more what students had in mind, students were guarded in their reaction after the College’s last attempt at establishing an environmental institution, the perpetually weak and ineffective landscape, energy and environment committee.
Things seemed promising, but there was room for disappointment. What if the process excluded or ignored students? What if students raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through “green fees” and the money only filled in the gaps left by budget cuts? What if the committee turned out to be a bureaucratic mess, a place where sustainability proposals went to die?
After almost a full semester of existence, though, it appears the committee on sustainability has surpassed our guarded expectations to become something we can fully embrace.
Students were the driving force behind the committee’s creation, and they have remained an integral part of its development.
The three student representatives - me, another undergraduate and a graduate student - make up one-third of the committee and have full voting privileges. Our opinions have as much value as any of the faculty or administration representatives. As one chair reminds us, it is the students’ money the committee is spending, so we need to satisfy our patrons.
At the last meeting, we began allocating the money raised by green fees, and students should be proud of their investment. We are funding everything from monitoring projects to inform further actions by the committee to research projects that will help the College improve its current efforts for sustainability. On top of all that, we are making changes to campus infrastructure, like occupancy sensors for lights, which will immediately start saving money for the school.
The committee’s members are all people of action. Some students were afraid of overwhelming red tape and over-inflated timelines. Instead, we are seeing that Reveley has given the steering committee a great deal of autonomy to make decisions for the College. A steering committee sets the goals for the entire committee and directs the action by the three subcommittees, the science and technical advisory subcommittee, the financial and operations subcommittee and the programs and education subcommittee. The steering committee has handed the reins to the subcommittees, who must now determine for themselves the best way to achieve their assigned tasks.
The committee is a dynamic body determined to make changes on campus. Its members understand that the College has a long way to go to in becoming sustainable and that there is no time to waste. We are already getting small - but important - projects accomplished and making grander plans for next semester.
The greatest success we have had with the committee so far, though, is the high level of student involvement. Not only do we have students on the steering committee who are also co-chairs of the subcommittees, but the subcommittees have impressive student representation. Each subcommittee has around 10 student members who are all involved in various working groups.
Supporting student research is another important function of the committee; students are already a critical force in sustainability on campus, and this is their chance to have their work recognized and rewarded. The committee will provide funding for projects or academic credit for students’ work. For everyone who has spent their free time researching options for sustainability in addition to their regular coursework, this is an enormous help.
Since its creation, students have had every reason to be proud of the committee on sustainability. It has listened to what we want to see done on campus and then started to take the necessary steps to accomplish those goals.
In the past few months, the committee has shown that students can afford to be greedy. We have gotten what we have asked for with the institutionalization of sustainability on campus, but that is no reason to stop pushing for more. And the committee appreciates that. We are looking for what students want.
Ask for money for research on campus sustainability.
Ask for projects that increase energy efficiency or reduce campus waste.
Not every request will get funding, but that is no reason not to ask. The committee can only succeed with diverse approaches and innovation. We need student input.
So get excited and get involved. The creation of the committee on sustainability has given us a great opportunity to bring sustainability to the College. Let’s take advantage of that opportunity to the fullest.
Lauren Edmonds is a guest columnist for The DSJ. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.
This piece originally appeared in the December 2008 issue issue of The DoG Street Journal.