It’s Getting Hot In Here

I spent nine weeks of my summer participating in the Greenpeace Organizing Term, training and learning how to effectively win a campaign and how to increase the pressure in order to do so. I came back to Elon University, where I’m currently enrolled as a sophomore, ready to face up to our administration and demand that they do something about global warming, that they at least start thinking about the issue. As it turns out, they already were.

When I returned to campus, I was ready to start working on the Campus Climate Challenge and began tapping into whatever resources I could find in order to get the campaign under way. Students immediately became engaged in the issue, volunteering time and energy. An overwhelming number of professors responded in support of the cause, allowing us to speak with their students. After a couple weeks, I received an e-mail from a student in the communications department asking if I knew anything about biodeisel and if I would be willing to interview for a segment he was putting together on a new service station in the area. After telling him about the campaign and issues of clean energy on campus, he rather quickly decided to change the focus of the segment to the Challenge. The video was posted on the blog earlier in the semester. Not long after our kick-off meeting, we were approached by a student who asked us to co-sponsor a screening of An Inconvenient Truth. We took up the offer and helped to bring over 200 students to the viewing. Since the screening, we’ve been focused on getting student representation on the newly developed Sustainability Committee. The committee was established by our University President who supposedly became more interested in sustainability after bringing his daughter to school at Furman University where they’ve recently created a “Year of the Environment” Committee (proof that our schools do influence one another). The committee at Elon will be formulating a policy on everything from green building to sustainability in the curriculum. The proposal will be submitted to the trustees in April for approval.

We’re also continuing to engage the student body in the movement. This afternoon, members of our group tied flyers to every bike parked on campus, thanking the owners for reducing their emissions by not driving their car. We invited the riders to join us at our next meeting, tomorrow night, to claim their free gift (a compact flourescent, of course) in an effort of recruitment.

At a recent Honors Program induction for freshman, the president of our University spoke about the threat of global warming and the urgency needed to confront the issue. There’s been talk among faculty that the common reading for next year’s freshman class will be An Inconvenient Truth and that Al Gore will be coming to the school to give his famous presentation. This, of course, may or may not happen. What I am MOST excited about is the fact that people are even talking about these things. People at my own university, who I was ready to launch a campaign against before I even got to campus this semester, are speaking out about what needs to be done. I’m impressed.

As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” I’m impressed by Elon’s administration, but I’m also ready to hold them to their word and make sure that things are actually getting done. I want them to understand that the students are united behind this issue. Our university is still buying their energy from North Carolina’s coal. We can’t wait any longer. We must act NOW.