Last fall, after years of meetings and strategizing, Miami University of Ohio was set to become a leader in campus sustainability, and then the economy fell apart. Plans to open a campus Office of Sustainability were scrapped, and a campus-wide hiring freeze was set in place.
Now, Miami is back on track! At a forum this past Thursday, the student body Vice President and others unveiled a bold new plan to offer a $50,000 revolving fund for “cost saving, feasible, environmentally impactful and well-researched” projects. Money saved will then be put back into the pot, increasing the amount available for new projects.
Geography professor and chair of the new sustainability committee David Prytherch said “We really, in a certain sense, are only in the beginning. I think the people who will be at Miami in the next century will face a challenge that the people in the past couldn’t have contemplated.”
The first wave of proposals, open to students, faculty, and staff, are due in November. Whoever writes the winning proposals, this will surely be a landmark program that helps to set the future course of Miami University. Read the full story in the Miami Student.
