PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE
Photo by Sally McCay
An honor and a challenge
The recent successes of the University of Vermont have only been achieved through the efforts of many. I cannot tell you how sharp my consciousness of this was on the January morning that I learned that the Burlington Free Press had named me as the paper’s Vermonter of the Year. My first thought was that the recognition belonged to the thousands who work so hard every day to build real and enduring value at UVM. When a colleague contacted me via e-mail about that day’s news in the Free Press, I assumed that the honor was for all that we’ve achieved together here over the course of the last half dozen years. But no—zipping to the BFP website I saw that what I and UVM had been singled out for was something we have yet to do, to lead Vermont in the creation of a green and sustainable economy.
I have long believed that UVM cannot succeed unless Vermont succeeds, and that Vermont cannot succeed unless UVM succeeds. This is particularly true in regard to the research university’s role as a center for innovation, enterprise creation, and economic prosperity. The Free Press Vermonter of the Year editorial implicitly poses for us one of the trickiest questions we have to resolve in this next phase of UVM’s advance—how do we fulfill the public Land Grant mission we have affirmed in Signatures of Excellence while continuing to build the academic distinction that will give us in other dimensions the qualities cherished at the best private colleges and universities. Or, put differently, how do we marry our core commitment to the disinterested pursuit of knowledge and the ideals of liberal education to an outreach mission premised on the application of integrated solutions to local and global challenges?
It is a question we have begun to move ahead on already with the establishment of the new President’s Commission on Sustainability and of a University Office of Sustainability. The new office and commission will help us make the difficult choices about how we invest University time and money, both to reduce our own negative environmental impacts from operating the campus and to engage faculty and students in finding solutions for society as a whole.
The commission’s first order of business will be to create a Climate Neutrality Working Group that will develop a plan for reaching climate neutrality at UVM. This is in keeping with the college and university Presidents’ Climate Commitment, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, which I signed last summer.
The Office of Sustainability will support the Commission’s development of an overall environmental sustainability strategy, track performance indicators and best practices, oversee the selection and implementation of the best ideas for reducing environmental impacts, and educate and involve the campus and Vermont communities through programs, websites, events, and publications. I am pleased that UVM alumna Gioia Thompson, longtime environmental coordinator at the University, will direct the new office.
The challenges are great, but we begin from a position of strength in this area where it is essential not just to “talk the talk,” but also to “walk the walk.” Recent evidence of this commitment came in February when the Davis Center became the first student union in the country to receive the LEED Gold designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. Widespread use of local materials in the Davis Center, including bricks from Highgate and slate from Fair Haven, was a key reason for this certification.
(for UVM staff)