Quite the commitment

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Posted: 9/16/08

For a man who said he wanted his first year as DePauw's president to be about listening, Brian Casey spoke loudly Monday when he signed the Presidents Climate Commitment. The impact of his decision is simply too immense for anyone to judge at this time. Only as the University embarks on its two-year path to develop a plan to reach climate neutrality will the community fully understand the effects of what DePauw has pledged.

The most tangible element of this commitment is that DePauw now must hold itself to specific standards and deadlines regarding its impact on the environment. Instead of some nebulous idea about environmental practices, we now have a clear-cut way of examining where we are as an institution in terms of sustainability. How we measure up to those standards will continue to be big news on campus for years to come.

But to some extent, how big this decision is depends on how DePauw approaches the requirements outlined in the commitment. If we only meet the minimum interim guidelines, students' everyday lives will likely not be impacted by it. But if we go all out in following the seven actions the commitment outlines, we may all be seeing a change at DePauw even before we fulfill the ultimate goal of climate neutrality.

While the vision of the Presidents Climate Commitment is definitely admirable, we find one component questionable: the incorporation of sustainability into the curriculum. If that simply means encouraging students to discuss the issue, then we're making good progress and we'rein favor of continuing down that path. But if it implies that DePauw must replace certain class offerings with sustainability-centered courses, that's taking the commitment too far. The University shouldn't force discussion of environmental concerns, as legitimate as they may be, into places where it doesn't belong. Classes such as professor Kelsey Kauffman's course on environmental activism are wonderful additions to DePauw's curriculum. However, encouraging physics classes to investigate the difference in velocity of a recycled or non-recycled bottle doesn't do much to enrich DePauw. We hope that the University's new focus on sustainability will expand and enliven intellectual discourse, not pigeonhole it.

On a more positive note, it's encouraging that Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray found Monday's signing significant enough to attend. The city's recognition by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns as one of the state's greenest communities shows sustainability is an issue on which DePauw and Greencastle are on the same page. It would be foolish for the University to think that it can commit to such sweeping changes without the support of Greencastle. It's DePauw's job to implement climate neutrality, but if we can serve as partners in progress with local leaders, the impact is bound to be even greater.

Lastly, while it is Casey's name that appears on the pledge, student input can and will have a direct influence on the path the school's commitment takes. So many student activists have fought to make this agreement become a reality; it would be a shame for the implementation to be wholly top-down. The most straightforward form of student action would be white papers from Student Congress stating which areas of the sustainability pledge we feel are most important. But let's write letters, send e-mails and make our ideas known to administrators. At the least, let's be informed about what climate neutrality means and what each of us can do to reach the goal.

-Kali Geldis didn't contribute to this editorial.