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Please urge Congress to appropriate $25 million for the University Sustainability Program (USP) in FY 2011. The money was authorized in 2008, but now must be appropriated. We ask you to:

• Contact your Member of Congress by March 15 to urge him or her to respond to the "Dear Colleague" letter from Representatives Blumenauer and Ehlers by joining other Members of Congress in urging the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee to provide $25 million for the University Sustainability Program. Also, please ask your Representative to make an individual programmatic request to the Labor-HHS Subcommittee to fund USP at $25 million. Please direct this message to the Legislative Assistant who handles education.
• If you are a college or university president, please email mail Don Ryan, Vice President for Policy at Second Nature, at dryan@secondnature.org to join more than 200 college and university presidents as a supporter of federal funding for USP. This list includes those college & university presidents who supported the 2008 authorization of the funds and now this year's appropriation.

Background:

In 2008, Congress recognized colleges' and universities' leadership in sustainability by authorizing the University Sustainability Program (USP).  Last year, Congress designated USP as one of six "invitational priorities" for the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.  This year, we are asking Congress to appropriate $25 million for USP competitive grants to help colleges and universities advance teaching and learning in sustainability.

Colleges and universities across the country are providing vital leadership in reducing their campuses' greenhouse gas emissions. Higher education must also provide the knowledge base to prepare graduates for a clean energy economy. Successful models have already demonstrated how to train faculty to integrate sustainability principles across the curriculum. These funds could take those models to scale through competitive grants to colleges, universities, and consortia by training 25,000 faculty in up to 1,000 colleges and universities in the principles of sustainability. As a result, 1.25 million students would be better prepared to lead the US for a clean, green economy.

Suggested Talking Points When Communicating with Members of Congress:

1. On March 4, Representatives Blumenauer and Ehlers sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to your office to invite you to join other Members of Congress in a joint letter to Chairman Dave Obey and Ranking Member Todd Tiahrt of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee in support of $25,000,000 for the University Sustainability Program.
2. I want to urge you to sign this letter to make clear your support of funding for this national competitive grants program, which will help colleges and universities prepare our graduates to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. The deadline for signing on is March 17. Please contact tyler.frisbee@mail.house.gov (Rep. Blumenauer) or julia.jester@mail.house.gov (Rep. Ehlers).
3. Would you also please make an individual programmatic request to the Labor-HHS Subcommittee to fund USP at $25 million? Expressing support for funding the national USP competitive grants program does not qualify as an "earmark" request.
4. Thank you for your strong support of this national competitive grants program to help colleges and universities provide stronger leadership in shifting towards sustainability.