STUDENT activism sometimes confirms the worst stereotypes of college naivete. Most University students can remember quixotic activists that falsely believed that a reproachful demonstration by a few dozen students could affect the actions of a distant head of state or a jet-setting CEO. Too often student activism fails to move beyond expressing an opinion to affecting meaningful change.
Because it is often difficult for students to instigate worthwhile reforms, student institutions should offer their full support to such movements when they arise. Following this principle, student institutions, such at Student Council and leading CIOs should offer new means of support for initiatives that will make the University a leader in environmentally-friendly practices.
Although implementing effective small-scale green reforms may not seem a Herculean task, implementing a maximally effective plan will require student organizations to look beyond the traditional areas of activism. Removing trays from the cafeteria and campaigns to encourage students to adopt conservationist practices are still important, but students will only create real change when student institutions have the financial backing necessary to make green investments.
Environmentally-minded programs such as distributing devices that save energy or water entail serious financial cost, so such efforts would require a substantial investment.
Past student movements may have recognized this financial hurdle, and they have often failed to surmount it. Most notable among these have been several opinion referendums in student elections that called for the University to enact small tuition increases -- usually less than $10 -- to subsidize the University's transition to renewable sources of energy.
Even as these referendums won by large margins, however, the administration failed to respond failed to respond. There has been no clearer indication of the failure of these efforts than their perennial place on the ballot, appearing in slightly different manifestations for the fall 2004, fall 2005, and spring 2006 elections.
These efforts may well have been high-minded and of the best intentions, but they failed because they relied on the University to make hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of financial reforms. As any student who witnessed the Living Wage Campaign of spring 2006 can attest, the University is reticent to enact financial reforms solely in response to student protests.
The lesson to be taken from these efforts is that students must provide their own financial backing if reform efforts are to create tangible progress. While grants and Student Council appropriations have so far been effective in supporting environmentalist causes on Grounds, the most ambitious environmentalist goals will not be financed easily or cheaply. Student organizations and Student Council representatives should work together to create a student-financed green initiative.
The Fourth-Year Trustees program shows that student networks can be effectively utilized to raise funds for a cause. If financially beleaguered fourth-years can be tapped to add to the University's multi-billion dollar endowment, there is no reason that a "green trustees" program supervised by Council could not raise a substantial sum of money to finance a green initiative.
Moreover, a concerted fundraising effort could probably count on financial backing from supportive environmentally-minded alumni. With a network of thousands of successful graduates, it must be possible to solicit an even more substantial sum of money to finance a green initiative than could be drawn from current students.
Through a concerted fundraising campaign, student institutions could make supporting environmental initiatives on Grounds into another proud University traditions The success of previous referenda notwithstanding, no action will be taken until student institutions take the lead.
Adam Keith's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at akeith@cavalierdaily.com.
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