Talking Stick - November/December 2008 - (Page 10)

Just In The Amethyst Initiative Sparks Ratings Go Green While it’s still important to many students which colleges and universities are the top party schools, have the best residence halls, and have the best food, it’s becoming increasingly important for them to know what these institutions are doing for the environment. At the end of July 2008, the Princeton Review released its annual college rankings complete with the new College Green Rating — a list of the greenest institutions. The Princeton Review partnered with ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental group specializing in consumer research and marketing, to develop the College Green Rating, which measures a school’s environmental awareness and preparedness on a scale of 60 to 99 in eight categories. More specifically, the ranking includes a comprehensive look at whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable, how well a school is preparing students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental concerns, and how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are. The scoring, as well as the 28-question survey (which asked college and university officials questions such as “What is the school’s overall waste diversion rate?”), was designed by a panel of higher education environmental experts, according to the ecoAmerica Web site. The result of the Princeton Review’s inaugural College Green Rating is the Green Rating Honor Roll, a list of the top 11 greenest colleges and universities in the U.S. (listed in alphabetical order): Arizona State University at Tempe Bates College (Lewiston, Maine) College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine) Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) Harvard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts) State University of New York at Binghamton University of New Hampshire (Durham) University of Oregon (Eugene) University of Washington (Seattle) Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) As another school year begins, students are again facing the challenges of underage drinking. The Amethyst Initiative has offered a radical solution to the problem: lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. The Amethyst Initiative, created in July of 2008, is represented by numerous U.S. college and university presidents and chancellors who acknowledge that there is a culture of irresponsible alcohol use on campuses and who feel that keeping the drinking age at 21 actually encourages binge drinking. According to the initiative’s Web site, one of its primary goals is to spark an open dialogue about the issue: “The Amethyst Initiative supports informed and unimpeded debate on the 21 year-old drinking age. Amethyst Initiative presidents and chancellors call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.” Currently there are 129 signers on the initiative, and the numbers continue to rise each month. Opinions on the initiative vary from one institution and one region to another. Jody Stone, assistant director of housing at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, explains one thing she favors about the initiative: “You cannot apply a cookie cutter approach to when an individual achieves enough maturity to handle the responsibility of drinking alcohol within reasonable limits. Lowering the drinking age will contribute to To see the 2009 Princeton Review ratings, visit www.princetonreview.com/green.aspx?uidbadge. 10 Talking Stick http://www.princetonreview.com/green.aspx?uidbadge

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - November/December 2008

Talking Stick - November/December 2008 Contents Online Now Vision Just In Your ACUHO-I Transitions Res Life Facilities Business Special Focus Calendar Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places The Evolving Role of the Resident Advisor Conversations First Takes Reporting Out New Members Snapshot

Talking Stick - November/December 2008

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