Undergraduates, Overlooked

Harvard: Congratulations are in order. As announced in September 18th’s Crimson (and The New York Times that same day), the University has voluntarily agreed to cap carbon emissions for the extensive science facilities it is planning for Allston. Struck between the University and the state, the agreement sets legally enforceable emissions limits on the real estate development to a level 50 percent below the national standard.

Such news is certainly praiseworthy, but a critical part of the story was left out of newspapers: us. We can excuse The New York Times for glossing over student involvement in the greening of Harvard—after all, they don’t purport to know all the ins and outs of our campus. The same omission on the part of The Crimson, however, is inexcusable, particularly given past coverage of the role of students in this process.

This agreement is the first of its kind in the U.S. and the first quantifiable emissions commitment the school has made to date. Coverage, while deservedly laudatory, should have included the fact that students have been there, pushing the administration, every step of the way.

Undergraduates have long been some of Harvard’s staunchest environmental advocates, and this role has greatly expanded in recent years. It was students who created the Sustainable Allston Group in 2003 to ensure that environmentally responsible building principles were incorporated into the development’s master plan. Their efforts resulted in President Lawrence H. Summers’ signing of the six “Sustainability Principles”—a legacy that clearly persists in the executive summary of the current draft plan.

In 2005, students passed (by an 82-percent margin) a referendum that called for the addition of an optional wind energy fee to their termbills. Administrators may have swiftly vetoed the initiative, but it ultimately resulted in the creation of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)-backed Green Crimson Fund to educate students and bring $10,000 worth of renewable energy to campus. Students voted green again in 2006, demanding FAS adopt emissions reduction targets through another College-wide referendum. Even more widely supported than the wind referendum, this one garnered a “yes” from 88 percent of the roughly 3,500 voting undergraduates. Consequently, an Energy Task Force was created that is putting together a business plan to show how significant reductions can be achieved.

Obviously, undergraduates haven’t changed the environmental course of this huge and complex institution by themselves—but neither has the administration.

We student environmentalists have found supporters and allies at many levels of the University administration, and Harvard has done an admirable job of institutionalizing first steps towards campus sustainability. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative and Green Campus Loan Fund serve as apt examples. But these important offices depend on our actions as students. Summers would not have signed the Sustainability Principles without pressure from undergraduates; Former Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 would not have pledged money to the Green Crimson Fund but for student expectations; the Energy Task Force would not have convened without the overwhelming support shown by undergraduates in last year’s vote. Sustainability, in short, would not be such a priority within in the administration without the pressure and constant scrutiny of our student body.

This point isn’t simply being made to take credit where it is due. Yes, recognition for effective lobbying is important, and there is a sweet satisfaction in seeing our efforts joined with administrative support to make substantive change. But the heart of the matter comes in considering the scope of what we have before us: addressing climate change will be a process different from any other we have faced as a generation or a globe; we must engage governments, shift economies, refocus sciences, and revolutionize industries.

If we don’t begin to grapple with these issues now, and if we learn to assume that the impetus will always come from “above,” where will we be when we, the students, the under-appreciated, find ourselves as policymakers in these governments, brokers in these markets, or researchers in these labs? Perhaps we sound puerile in taking one bout of newspaper reporting and raising the stakes so high; but the reality is that we sell ourselves short if we aim any lower.

Spring Greeney ’09, Henry M. Cowles ’08, a Crimson arts editor, and Jake C. Levine ’07, a Crimson photo editor, are former co-chairs of the Harvard Environmental Action Committee.