President Joel began the spring town hall meeting emphasizing Yeshiva University’s need to achieve financial sustainability, but environmental sustainability at Yeshiva University was the focus of Earth Week (March 31-April 4), a week-long initiative by the Office of Energy and Sustainability to raise awareness about environmental issues on campus. Students’ enthusiasm for the Earth Week programming on both the Beren and Wilf campuses, however, was inconsistent and underwhelming.
President Joel began the spring town hall meeting emphasizing Yeshiva University’s need to achieve financial sustainability, but environmental sustainability at Yeshiva University was the focus of Earth Week (March 31-April 4), a week-long initiative by the Office of Energy and Sustainability to raise awareness about environmental issues on campus. Students’ enthusiasm for the Earth Week programming on both the Beren and Wilf campuses, however, was inconsistent and underwhelming.Each year, the Office of Energy and Sustainability hires Ecological Representatives, a group of students who act as events facilitators and try to publicize and educate other students on environmental issues. Representation is a stipend-based, nominally competitive position, but this year not even the 10 available slots were filled with interested candidates. Whether the deficiency was the result of a lack of interest or a lack of publicity was difficult to pinpoint, but the head of the Office of Energy and Sustainability, Ms. Andrea Moore, has attempted to bring in more student interest with a Facebook page, which she posted during Earth Week. (Because the Facebook page is still in its first weeks, it is difficult to evaluate its success.)
However, Earth Week itself went by unnoted by many students, despite plenty of events. On the boys’ campus, there was a showing of the film Wall-E, as well as a fairly popular architectural recycling competition called Builder Battles. On the Beren campus, a representative handed out stickers that said “I love New York Water,” to increase consumption of non-bottled drinks. A thought-provoking talk by Professor Leventer about environmental ethical obligations and a green building tour went nearly unvisited.
Despite sporadic commitment, students are not uninterested in environmental sustainability. Some of the Sustainability Office’s best publicized events are YU Unplugged, an intercampus competition aimed at lowering energy-usage by shutting off electronics, and Recyclemania, an eight-week long race between universities to boost recycled materials. It is during these activities that environmental enthusiasm is most tangible in both campuses. What remains to be seen, however, is how students can translate their momentary enthusiasm into a steadier commitment to helping the environment and Yeshiva University.