We can all agree that Macalester is effective in encouraging social activism and implementing its progressive mission statement. Environmental sustainability is, however, one area in which the college has failed to meet its stated ideals.

At the Student Organization Fair Saturday, in addition to seeing many active students pitching their organizations, you might have noticed plastic garbage bags, some overflowing, in large part filled with recyclables. Despite the fact that many organizations were handing out paper, no recycling bin could be found. The organizers of the event had apparently neglected to think about the environment when planning it.

In no way do we mean to single out the Organization Fair for blame; it’s simply one symptom of a much larger problem. We as a community too often neglect to institutionalize our environmental ideals. While most of us care about the environment—students, professors and administrators alike—we often forget about that value when the environment is not the direct focus of an event.

The college is formally committed to the Talloires Declaration, which states our dedication to environmentalism and lays out a strong framework for the implementation of that commitment. President McPherson and a number of trustees, administrators, professors, students and alums signed the declaration in 2000. Three years later, we as a college are far from considering the environment in our daily operations. Making all parts of the college consider the health of the environment in every institutional decision is surely a vast undertaking. What is most concerning, however, is that we haven’t even taken the first steps; it seems that since the signing of the Talloires Declaration we haven’t yet begun the process of institutionalizing our dedication to environmentalism.

The declaration defined a first step towards that progress: “The College will commit the human and financial resources necessary to make the implementation of these principles meaningful. Specifically, the College will create and fill the position of ‘Director of College Environmental Affairs.’” We haven’t yet hired the director, nor is there any sign of a search to fill the position.

In fact, since signing the Talloires Declaration, we have regressed from its goal. Last year we lost the chair and only full-time faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department, Al Romero. The Environmental Studies Department, with no full-time faculty members, is left in danger of disintegration.

We must consider the environment in everything we as an institution do, in the big things and the little things—which professors we hire, which classes we offer, where our endowment is invested, what kind of buildings we build and how we operate them, which contractors we use, where we get our energy, where the food we eat comes from, what we do with our waste at the Student Org Fair and much more.

To begin achieving this, a capable, qualified Director of College Environmental Affairs must be hired as soon as possible and the Environmental Studies Department must be saved with at least one full-time faculty position.

Simply signing a declaration of environmentalism is meaningless. We must take the steps necessary to make the college a more environmentally responsible place. In the absence of such steps we as an institution are failing to align our actions with our words.

When asked in the past, members of the administration have often responded that at present the college simply can’t afford to implement the Talloires Declaration. This is a weak argument at best. Funding will always be an issue of priorities, and if implementing environmental sustainability is not a priority for Mac, than we should strike our names off the declaration.

Students have been quietly working on these issues for a long time. It’s time for clear and public answers about why we aren’t seriously implementing our commitment to environmentalism.

We need the Environmental Studies department. We need the environmental director. It’s time for real progress, not just nominal affirmations.