Being green has definitely become the "in" thing to do. From television commercials, to universities launching environmentally friendly programs, it's obvious that our perception of being green has changed. The entire look of an environmentally conscious person has changed. The stereotypical look was the "hippie" look. The flower child. But that image has slightly changed. The ideal person for the green initiative has become the everyday average person. Just look at Al Gore. Totally typical. He has no flowers in his hair, and he definitely wears a shirt and tie.
The recent efforts to save our planet has been a collective one, and has even changed how universities function and implement new programs. The University of Mississippi has the Red, Blue & Green campaign. The way that we construct buildings, get to and around campus, and so many other things are different. So campuses have changed as well. But there's any even bigger change that combines the university and the individual. And that's the position of sustainability coordinators at universities.
According to the "Young, Green, and in Charge" article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, universities are tagging along with the idea of environmental friendliness and it is young people who are leading the way. The article speaks of a young woman who made some drastic demands of her university president:
"The student activist laid out a list of environmental demands: A planned campus development should be made more ecologically friendly. The budget for sustainability projects was too small. Staffing was inadequate. Oh, and one more thing: The university should hire her to fix this mess."
And she was hired. Across the country, students passionate about the welfare of our environment are being employed by universities to either coordinate the efforts or serve on the staffed team. However, there are some differences for the student-turned-administrator that makes their jobs harder.
1. It's difficult to find the line between extreme activist and administrator.
"In my personal life, in my life as an activist, I would make very different decisions than I can make as a sustainability coordinator," says Ms. Gava. "I drew a line in the sand where the coordinator will sit. I didn't draw that line in the right place at first, and two years in, I realize I'm still too radical." Change, she discovered, does not occur overnight." The article describes the fear of "selling out" that sustainability coordinators sometimes feel because of the more contained nature of their employment. They sometimes feel like they have to oversell what the university is really doing to promote their place of employment, even though they feel as if the university is not doing as well as reported.
2. Getting past age
"No matter how strong their grasp of environmental theory and climate change, however, the recent graduates find it challenging to maneuver past a bureaucracy full of administrators who attended college before environmental studies was an option. Mr. Friedman says colleagues at meetings and sustainability conferences ask what his major is. He often hires graduate students older than himself. The young administrators worry about what to wear to trustee meetings and how to exert authority when most of the campus power players are 40 or older."
These individuals find it difficult to persuade and educate an older administration that did not grow up in an age where the welfare of the environment was a top issue on the to-do list. They often feel like they spend more time creating a avenue of conversation instead of making important decision concerning sustainability.
3. How to act
"Mr. Friedman and a colleague at the University of California at Santa Cruz are putting together a guide for new sustainability coordinators that covers the basic administrative issues not covered in a biology or environmental-studies course. The sense of urgency many of them feel leaves little time for learning how to get things done within a university bureaucracy."
Because of their age, young sustainability coordinators and administrators bring a youthful vitality to their office and departments. They bring fresh ideas and they understand how to get undergraduates on board with university initiatives. However, their inexperience also plays a role because they have to play "catch-up" in order to fit in with the university environment--bureaucracy and all.
There is an association that supports these individuals, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and the article has stated that young sustainability professionals find comfort in learning more about their field AND getting the professional help they need in order to be productive on their campuses.
The look of "going green" has changed throughout the decades and so has university infrastructure by adding sustainability departments. I think it's interesting that some universities are using their recent graduates to help coordinate and add life to their campaigns.
Link to article: http://chronicle.com/article/Young-Greenin-Charge/28134/
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