Due to pressure from students and other community members, the administration is considering several environmental changes on campus.

The pressure is coming from different sources, but the consensus among those involved seems to be that Macalester is not doing all it can to be an environmentally-friendly campus. The trustees addressed some of these concerns at the trustee meeting March 5-7.

Danny Schwartzman ’04 presented his report on environmentalism on campus at the meeting. The report states that there is no coordinated institutional support for environmentalism at Macalester and provides five general suggestions for improvement. They are: to make the Campus Environmental Issues Committee (CEIC) a more effective committee, hire an environmental director, improve communication inside the administration, improve communication between the administration and the broader community and implement environmentalism in Purchasing and Investments.

“We talked for about half an hour with the Campus Life Committee [of Trustees] about environmentalism and institutional responsibility,” Schwartzman said. He gave the trustees his report and noted “a lot of support for the concept of an environmental director.”

Schwartzman has also discussed his report and recommendations with the CEIC, a committee of faculty, staff and students whose general mission is to identify and improve campus environmental practices. According to Brett Smith, Environmental Studies Department chair and co-chair of the CEIC, the committee is interested in the issues raised in Schwartzman’s report. “[We are] very much involved,” Smith said.

Schwartzman has also discussed these ideas with President Rosenberg.

“My general approach has been to acknowledge and agree on the need to be an environmentally responsible campus,” Rosenberg said.

“Clearly, the largest area of uncertainty at this point is on the creation of an environmental director position at a time when staffing is so tight,” he said. “It needs to be proven to me that an environmental director will do something that others [already employed on campus] cannot.”

Schwartzman sees the hiring of an environmental director as a moral issue. “Regardless of whether it saves money or not, we should do it,” he said. “I think it’ll save money. It’s just about figuring out what the exact amount is.”

The CEIC has been working on many of the same issues with which Schwartzman’s report deals. After former President Mike McPherson and other members of the community signed the Talloires Declaration in May 2000, the CEIC was assigned the task of implementing the declaration.

The declaration is an agreement signed by many colleges to carry out initiatives designed to promote environmentalism. These initiatives include raising consciousness of environmentalism, engaging in research and education and establishing programs for recycling and waste reduction. The plan includes an annual state of the college report, an environmentally-conscious procurement policy (which is the policy the college’s uses to decide what it will buy—it covers everything from what the Highlander carries to Facilities Management uniforms) and the hiring of a Director of College Environmental Affairs. The college has not carried out the implementation plan.

According to Smith, there is no agreement on who is responsible for this lack of implementation. Some blame the committee for not implementing the declaration and some fault the administration for not giving enough resources to the committee.

“Rosenberg has been trying to respond to this,” Smith said. “He’s been quite supportive of what the CEIC is doing within…the budget realities he faces.”

Committee members are attempting to make the CEIC a formal, standing committee of the college, according to Smith.

“[Formalizing the committee] links the committee more intentionally to college,” Smith said. “In the past, membership has been on whim. [Formalization] calls for a commitment on the part of the faculty and students to make a committee that matters.”

CEIC secretary Sally Weivoda ’06 added that if the committee were formal, it would act as an advisory committee to the president.

One goal of the CEIC is for an outside company to conduct an environmental audit of the college by the end of the semester. The company would evaluate the performance of the campus compared to other universities, according to Weivoda. She said that committee members are fairly certain that the audit will take place. President Rosenberg said he had indicated to the committee he would be willing to bring in a consultant.

“One perspective is that if we could improve our energy consumption, we could use the money saved to justify hiring an environmental director,” Weivoda said.