UVa Sustainability has recently launched its campaign for students to individually pledge their commitment to "consider the social, economic, and environmental impacts of their habits and to explore ways to live more sustainably during their time here at U.Va. and beyond." But what, may I ask, is the University pledging?
While UVa Sustainability is urging us to consider our individual actions, there is no better time than the present to ask our own University to take a look in the mirror. What would they see? An Academical Village fueled by our very own high-pollution coal plant. Although we would all like to consider our school a leader in technological innovation and sustainability, we have fallen behind in one of the most critical environmental issues: that of clean energy.
Since September, the UVa Beyond Coal coalition has collected over 1,200 petitions from students supporting one sustainable mission: getting the University off of coal power. The petitions will be presented to President Teresa A. Sullivan at the end of the semester in hopes that our she will listen to students' wishes and publicly announce the University's plan to convert to clean energy as many other universities have already begun to do.
Beyond Coal will host a rally Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in front of Peabody Hall to give students a chance to call on the University to make its own sustainability pledge and commit to clean power. The time has come for the University to recognize the hypocrisy in goading students to live sustainably when it fails to match the pledge of the student body by continuing to rely on dirty energy.
Lauren Ludi\nCLAS IV
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