University Business - December 2007 - (Page 37)

FUTURE SHOCK Painting the Ivory Towers Green Creating sustainable campuses for the 21st century By James Martin and James E. Samels A S NEW ENGLAND AND the Midwest broiled under an October heat wave, we pondered the common threads in this year’s interrupted Chicago marathon, this fall’s sweltering Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass., and next summer’s Olympics in Beijing. What do these three athletic events have in common? Unhappily, the answer is heat and pollution. The Beijing Olympics are predicted to be more oppressive than Chicago and Cambridge, where jumpers, runners, and rowers can no longer compete in the brutal heat of global warming. In Hocus Pocus, the late Kurt Vonnegut wrote that “we could have saved [the earth], but we were too cheap.” Considered by many an enigmatic literary light with a knack for painting iconoclastic pictures of the future, Vonnegut was for many an author who was slightly ahead of his time. Across the nation and overseas, college and university students and faculty are exploring new paths to save the earth. At the same time, they are looking inward, creating new ways of thinking about sustainable campus infrastructure. Driven by social responsibility, global warming, the energy crunch, and the environmental economy, institutions are creating green campuses for the 21st century. This fast growing concern for matters environmental has now moved beyond the campus enclave and found its way into conversations among high school guidance counselors and college admissions staﬀ. Increasingly, visiting students and parents ask about environmental career choices, carbon footprints, waste recycling, and with government to create tax incentives aimed at promoting the design and construction of new green campuses. Beyond tax subsidies, federal and state funding agencies and private philanthropic organizations are focusing their support on environmental protection, sustainable energy, and green technologies. Whether supported by the National Wildlife Federation or the National Science Foundation, campus development staﬀs now pay close attention to RFPs that target environmental sustainability in campus infrastructure, curricula, and environmental career pathways. ENVIRONMENTAL CORE From Massachusetts to Minnesota, from Connecticut to California, education systems are incorporating environmental course components as part of their college track core requirements for admission. Consider Minnesota, where the transferable curricula standards for public universities require courses in “people and the environment.” As a prime example, the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill., no longer strictly views its future growth and development from the perspective of scale alone. Rather, these days DuPage leaders envision their institutional niche in the forefront of environmental sustainability. Indeed, its campus facilities master plan focuses on preserving its future, by utilizing the James Martin is a professor at Mount Ida College (Mass.). James E. Samels is president and CEO of The Education Alliance. Their book is Presidential Transition in Higher Education: Managing Leadership Change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004). Concern for matters environmental has now found its way into conversations among high school guidance counselors. service learning opportunities in the ﬁelds of energy, environmental technology, and green chemistry. No longer are such green content interests limited to only a few environmental engineering students. Indeed, passionate concern for the environment ranges from automotive technology students interested in hybrid cars and lowsulfur diesel fuel, to agricultural science students studying ethanol yield, to mining technology students seeking to harness methane from coal beds. Over the past decade, environmental organizations, conservation foundations, and energy companies have partnered universitybusiness.com December 2007 | 37 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of University Business - December 2007

University Business - December 2007 Contents College Index Company Index Advisory Board Editor's Note Behind the News Viewpoint Admissions On The Hill Marketing Future Stock Independent Outlook Technology Spending Survey '08 Conference Call A Working Education 30 Smart Business Ideas Educause in Emerald City What's New Calendar of Events End Note

University Business - December 2007

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