Letter from University of Alaska Anchorage after consultation

July 13, 2004

Anthony Cortese, President
Second Nature
20 Maple Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

Re: April 2004 Visit to University of Alaska Anchorage

Dear Tony:

Goodness, summer’s half gone already. Long overdue, we’re writing on behalf of UAA’s sustainability community to express our profound gratitude for your work here in April. Because of you, our fledgling campus sustainability efforts have been launched from an institutional expression of good intentions to concrete action for institutional change.

As you know, our faculty senate ad hoc committee on sustainability had worked hard over the course of the past year to build on the facilities department’s behind-the-scenes gains in the areas of pollution prevention and resource recovery and to raise campus consciousness about UAA’s obligations to practice and educate for sustainability. We are proud to have built networks among students, faculty, staff, administrators, and local community members who already recognized and were motivated to act on these obligations. We regard it as a considerable success to have convinced all three campus governance bodies – the student government, faculty senate, and administration – to acknowledge these responsibilities by committing to the Talloires Declaration. We hoped that making a public event of this acknowledgement by bringing a high-profile speaker to the signing ceremony would generate enthusiasm both within the university and from the outside community to ensure that the declaration would be more than merely symbolic. These, we thought, were high hopes.

Little did we know how modest were these expectations in light of the quantity, intensity, and productivity of the work you actually did here. What began as a schedule for perhaps two public appearances and a consultation session with our sustainability committee turned into a dozen or more scheduled activities over six days, including meetings with top academic, facilities, and financial administrators; strategy sessions with committee members and influential others; numerous public appearances; and meaningful exchanges with students from both of Anchorage’s institutions of higher education. The bemused good will, unstinting energy, and wholehearted commitment with which you embraced these burgeoning demands, together with your bottomless expertise on both the technical/policy and the social/moral aspects of working toward sustainability were truly awe inspiring, and elicited great affection as well as admiration for you personally. We consider the relationship we have developed with you among the most institutionally valuable, as well as most humanly enriching, outcomes of your visit to our campus.

The tangible, on-the-ground results of your visit are also impressive. Inspired by your public presentation “Citizenship in the 21st Century” at which she gave your introduction, former Lieutenant Governor and Kennedy School Fellow Fran Ulmer assigned to students in her graduate Public Administration course – Environment and Economy – the task of formulating a Talloires Declaration implementation plan for the university. Not only did these outstanding graduate students – many of whom are prominent in Alaska’s conservation and business communities – produce 25 excellent proposals (which Fran has made available to the sustainability committee for our implementation research and planning purposes), but fourteen of these community members have enthusiastically volunteered to work with the task team in order to realize these visions of a just and sustainable UAA. With the approval and financial support of outgoing Chancellor Gorsuch, a summer sustainability task team has been charged with researching and formulating a Talloires Declaration implementation plan, pursuing a pilot project on environmentally preferable purchasing, and organizing a conference on campus sustainability for Spring 2005. By summer’s end we hope to have a comprehensive yet flexible strategy for UAA to fulfill its pledge to green our operations and curriculum. We have powerful institutional buy-in from administrators, faculty, staff, and students throughout the university, notably including our Vice Provost Renee Carter-Chapman, who has provided funding for our membership in the Education for Sustainability Western Network, obtained a sustainability collection room in the library, and worked tirelessly to apply (successfully) for a pollution prevention grant from the EPA. Indeed, the whole campus is mobilizing. For instance, our facilities planning personnel took the initiative to participate in SCUP’s webcast on the financial costs and benefits of green buildings; students in a summer environmental geology class are organizing to petition the administration to green our purchasing practices; and we will soon meet with academic leaders to discuss the integration of sustainability and systems thinking into both our general education curriculum and academic master plan. There is no question, Tony, that your visit was the essential catalyst for all this progress. As a result, we are eager to make arrangements to continue benefiting from your wisdom as these efforts progress.

Finally, we are sure you will be as moved as we were to hear the reactions of our students to your visit. In Jen’s ethics and environmental courses, a pervasive theme for critical exploration is the challenge of individual efficacy in achieving institutional change. As you know, many of these students participated in service learning leadership projects with the campus recycling program, gaining experience attempting to achieve such change; and many of them attended sustainability events and discussions during your visit. At the end of the semester, students were asked to reflect in their papers and final exams on what they learned, and your visit figured prominently in many of these reflections. With permission from the authors, here is just a small representation of what our students gained from your visit, in their own words:

The values I have learned about environmental ethics, I carry away with me. Now we must look towards the future of our campus sustainability at UAA. Thanks to Dr. Cortese coming to our campus I feel more confident in the production of sustainability on campus. – Cara Lucas

I learned that there is always some amount of hope, for all the problems that are wrought by the current state of affairs there are those that seek to make the world a better place, those with the emotion and passion to hold steadfast against the waters of apathy and cynicism and do what they feel is right. – Jeff Jones

One of the most tangible effects of this experience has been the bonds that have been made. Dr. Cortese spoke of the need for partnerships if we are to ever change the system, and through service learning I have made friends, partners, and allies. It is comforting to finally find that I am not alone, that there are numerous people fighting the same battles, whether personally or within the system. Throughout this semester I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from an amazing partner and friend and numerous faculty, staff, and members of my community. Furthermore, it is these connections that have given me a source of inspiration. – Jessica Cler

Clearly, your passion, intellect, commitment, and expertise have lit many sparks at UAA. For all you’ve given, and the lasting difference you’ve made in this community, we offer our deepest thanks.

All our best,

and on behalf of:

Allison Butler
2003-04 Faculty Senate ad hoc Committee on Sustainability
Co-Chair, UAA Summer Sustainability Task Team
Term Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

Terri Pauls
Co-Chair, UAA Summer Sustainability Task Team
2003-04 Faculty Senate ad hoc Committee on Sustainability
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies

Libby Roderick
2003-04 Faculty Senate ad hoc Committee on Sustainability
Program Manager, Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence

Lauren Bruce
2003-04 Faculty Senate ad hoc Committee on Sustainability
Director, Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence

Larry Foster
2003-04 Faculty Senate President
2003-04 Faculty Senate ad hoc Committee on Sustainability
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics

Jessica Cler
Student Intern, UAA Summer Sustainability Task Team

Calvin Sweeney
Student Intern, UAA Summer Sustainability Task Team