LAST MARCH, our University officially decided not to sign the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), a multi-institutional agreement on issues of environmental sustainability and climate change. At the time, there were over a hundred signatories to the document, including private Ivy League schools and small Virginia schools, as well as other large public institutions.
In the University's official response, the Commitment is cited as "an effort by environmental activists ... to gain commitments from college and university heads to agendas set outside of higher education." True, the issues of environmental sustainability are not a defined part of traditional higher education, but at a University that espouses a global perspective and leadership, it is alarming that we simultaneously hold such a conservative and narrow-minded stance.
Today, the Presidents' Climate Commitment has nearly 500 signatories. Some of the more notable recent institutions to join this effort include the University of Miami, University of Florida, Georgia Tech, University of Maryland (College Park), New York University, Syracuse, Davidson, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), Duke, NC State, Dickinson, Clemson, Rice; and more locally, George Mason, James Madison, Washington & Lee and the University of Richmond (thanks to our former College Dean Ed Ayers). It seems to me that a coalition of these institutions, in any context, merits serious attention and should be regarded as something more than an activist effort.
I have been told time and time again, by numerous University administrators, that our University has goals of environmental leadership. Though we have taken measures toward this end, issues like environmental sustainability and climate change require more than building policies and special committees (both of which are worthy University efforts). They require implementable, collaborative agreements between institutions that can make a real impact. Our University is exactly that type of institution -- I do not think we truly recognize our potential for leadership in this arena.
As Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee, I have fielded queries from students at other universities about student environmental efforts at the University. As we approach the first anniversary of our administration's decision not to sign the Presidents' Climate Commitment, I am becoming increasingly concerned by some of the questions I have received. An e-mail from a student in the Office of Environmental Policy at a prominent Northeastern university illustrates this well: "[Our university] is currently looking into signing the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, and we were wondering why U.Va. has not signed it?"
I formally, though reluctantly, directed this student to the best explanation that I knew of: the Administration's response from last March (though it contains "several factual misunderstandings," according to a source within the ACUPCC). I cannot help but feel as though this response I directed the student to is not representative of the true spirit of our University, and that many of the ideas and feelings within it have been outdated after less than a year.
I have been told and believe that our University's decision-makers seriously analyzed the Presidents' Climate Commitment before declining to sign it, though from their official response, and from the reactions of students at our peer institutions, I am not convinced that our decision was constructed with the best possible information. If the University has doubts or concerns about the Commitment or its implementation, we ought to task ourselves with the creation of innovative solutions, rather than simply dismissing the entire agreement. In the (unlikely) event that we cannot develop a solution, I am confident that we can find answers in places like Chapel Hill, College Park, Harrisonburg or Durham.
With this in mind, I call upon our University's leaders to seriously reconsider their decision not to sign the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Our administration must recognize that the Commitment represents an entirely collaborative, University-wide effort and obligation, and that there are many within our community (not just "activists") who are ready, able and willing to help our University meet and exceed the Commitment's expectations.
Ben Chrisinger is a second year Architecture student and chair of the Student Council's Environmental Sustainability Committee.
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