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Media Credit: Ciarra Schmidt

Occidental College doesn't use any solar panels to generate its electricity. It decided not to construct its new multi-million dollar dorm as a certified 'green building' and it still uses plastic takeout containers in its dining hall. This might seem a little odd for a small liberal arts college located in a city whose smog has prompted some of the tightest vehicle emissions standards in the country. It seems the cause of environmental discrepancy at Oxy may lie in a lack of administrative action. "There has been a lack of environmental governance at Oxy," says Urban and Environmental Policy Professor Mark Vallianatos. "Up until very recently it was hard to figure out what, if anything, was being done." Luckily, a few dedicated students and professors have been laying the groundwork for a greener college, and have lately been seeing some results.

Vallianatos is the instructor of Occidental's Environmental Stewards class, which recently has focused on effecting change in administrative policies and using student government to create a more environmentally-friendly school. "We're focused on identifying projects on-campus that can be adopted to create a more sustainable campus," he said. The class generally applies itself to one or two environmental campaigns a semester. Still, it's not easy for students to accomplish much in such a short time. "Sometimes students aren't in the best position to come to professionals, like Facilities employees, and tell them how their job should be done."

The Pollution Prevention Center, a subsidiary of the UEPI, recently contracted a wet-cleaning service on campus with Sunny Brite Natural Cleaners for use by students and faculty. Wet cleaning is an environmentally-friendly substitute for dry cleaning, which uses the chemical perchloroethylene. According to Elyse Leon-Reyes, Outreach Coordinator at the UEPI, "Perchloroethylene has been classified by the EPA as a probable carcinogen. It is smog-forming and an air contaminant. It is also a soil contaminant." Students can drop off their normally dry-cleaned clothes on-campus in Upper Herrick Tuesdays or Fridays, then return to pick them up the following wet-cleaning day. As of yet, Leon-Reyes says, the new service has largely been utilized by faculty members, who frequently wear suits and other dry-clean only garments to work.

Sadly, Oxy's student-run Environmental Club has fallen by the wayside as of late. Henry McMillan ('09) was the president of the club last semester, but said he grew frustrated at the difficulty of effecting environmental change on-campus. "Getting people more aware about recycling and changing to bio-degradable takeout containers proved to be more difficult than I thought," he said. "We haven't met in like five months." Still, McMillan hasn't deserted the environmental effort on-campus altogether.

Last year he was a member of Vallianatos' Environmental Stewards class, which spearheaded the drafting of an ASOC constitutional amendment for the creation of a Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Fund. The fund proposed that through the addition of a small figure to each student's Student Activities fee, a body of money could be amassed for use in the environmental betterment of Occidental's campus. The allocation of funds was to be determined by a small student-faculty committee devoted to increasing environmental sustainability at Occidental.

The group solicited more than 600 student signatures in order to get the proposition on the ballot, but it was initially defeated by a narrow margin after Senate representative Ken Smutny sent an email to the Oxy student body urging them to vote against the fund. "So few with such limited expertise should not oversee so much money applied to such a technical field," he wrote.

Still, the fund persevered, and with a little rewording on the part of McMillan, Vallianatos, and the Senate, passed last fall with over 80% of students in support. As a result, beginning in the 2008-2009 school year, Oxy students will pay an optional five-dollar student fee each semester, to be applied directly to the fund. A panel of three professors is currently in the process of selecting student applicants for the fund's seven-to-eleven person committee, which will be instated at the beginning of next semester.

Slightly worrying to both McMillan and Vallianatos is the fact that since the fund passed, the administration has changed the wording of the document to avoid anger by new students and their parents beginning their Oxy education next fall. Rather than students being allowed to opt out of paying the fee, they must now opt in. Vallionatos hopes that if all goes according to plan, this new wording may only be temporary. "If it's successful in the first year, maybe students will revote to make it mandatory," he said. According to ASOC president Ryan Bowen, the administration has agreed to financially compensate those coeds who opt out of the fee for at least the first year of the program.

McMillan himself applied to be a member of the committee, although his personal work in its institution makes him somewhat of a shoe-in candidate. He says he has grand visions for the allocation of funds, including long-term investment in alternative energy companies and eventual installation of photovoltaic solar arrays on some Oxy buildings. He'd also like alumni to be able to allocate their donations to the fund. Still, the fund will also be used for more short-term environmental goals on-campus, such as the placement of bike racks around campus, the funding of environmental speakers in honor of Earth Day, and other environmental requests made by clubs.

The committee will have a base of environmental awareness at Oxy to work off, if not iron-clad support from the top down. According to Vallianatos, he and other environmental advocates on-campus recommended that the squeaking-new Rangeview dorm be constructed as a certified 'green building' (meaning it would meet a list of energy sustainability requirements outlined by the U.S. Green Building Council), but the administration opted out of the more costly construction procedures. Ongoing renovations in Erdman, Bell-Young and Wylie, however, are using some green construction practices.

Admittedly, it's not easy for a small school like Oxy to keep up with the Jones'. Especially when the Jones' are operating at the forefront of environmental sustainability practices. Northland College, a small school in Ashland, Wisconsin received praise from former deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme, William H. Mansfield for the construction of their Environmental Living and Learning Center in 1998. Mansfield called the center, "One of the most environmentally advanced residence halls in the world," according to ecomall.com.

The dorm features a 120-foot 20 kilowatt wind tower, two composting waterless toilets, two greenhouses, three rooftop photovoltaic arrays (a series of solar panels designed to create renewable electricity directly from sunlight), and 14 solar panels to preheat water for resident use. Furthermore, eco-friendly building materials were used in its construction, including organic-based linoleum flooring, white cedar shakes, recycled paper insulation for the building's attic, bio-composite countertops, and furniture made from recycled milk jugs and steel. Even with all this environmental mumbo-jumbo involved, the connectivity of the center hasn't suffered. Every room has phone, cable TV and computer network hook-ups.

California's own Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology, a community college that serves the San Francisco East Bay region, opened an entire campus on January 28th, constructed with the highest available levels of environmentally sustainable construction and operations practices. The center is hoping to receive the platinum level of LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. If so, it would be one of only 50 buildings worldwide that can attest to such environmental benevolence.

Oxy is more environmentally up to par with its dining facilities, although they have some work yet to do to keep up with their competitors. Nearby UCSC has especially gained praise for its new dining hall guidelines. Not only do the school's eating establishments use a large quantity of organic locally-grown produce, but they recycle their used cooking oil and use disposable plates made of recyclable sugarcane fiber. By switching their contract from a national food provider to a local one, the school has reduced the greenhouse gases emitted as a result of their business practices since less transportation of food is needed. Admittedly, UCSC Dining has a slight leg-up in its ability to impact the local agricultural community-it's $4.5 million annual food budget.

Despite a considerably tighter belt, the Marketplace also features local and organic food on a daily basis. Not only is a changing selection of organic produce offered, but organic chicken breasts, sirloin steak, and an organic baked potato bar are weekly appearances on the menu. This past Thanksgiving, in conjunction with Oxy's now-inactive Environmental Club, the Marketplace featured a menu of exclusively locally-grown organic food. Furthermore, the Marketplace regularly donates leftovers to Oxy's Project Eden, a student-run club that meets weekly at a local church to prepare and serve food to the homeless.

The American College and University President's Climate Commitment describes itself as a "high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate." The Commitment has more than 500 signatories across the US, and includes the presidents of neighboring institutions Pitzer College, Harvey Mudd College, University of Redlands, and Whittier College. Still, in the spot on the list where one might expect to find the John Hancock of President Robert Skotheim, Susan Prager or even ex-president Ted Mitchell, there is nothing. The list skips seamlessly from Oberlin to Ocean County College, making no mention of Occidental or its institutional ignorance of environmental sustainability.

To be fair, Occidental is a signatory of the Talloires Declaration, an international agreement between university presidents who pledge to increase awareness about environmental sustainability on-campus, provide environmental outreach programs to the surrounding community, and maintain their own environmental effort through recycling and waste reduction. Still, the agreement makes no specific or concrete requests of its signatories. Where the ACUPCC requires a measurable reduction in its signatories' carbon footprints through policy change, the Talloires Declaration seems to be more of a gentle suggestion to aid in the education of others. For all intensive purposes, there is little to no accountability for its signatories, Occidental College included.

Although Oxy's green status seems to be improving, if only so slightly, there is still plenty of room for further upgrades, particularly on an administrative scale. It might be prudent for Oxy higher-ups to pay more attention to the advice of the UEPI, and to work with both faculty and students in an effort to construct new policies and infrastructure on campus that are sustainable both financially and environmentally. Oxy students must also step up to take on the challenge of promoting environmental sustainability, particularly through the assumption of leadership roles on-campus. Yes, recycling and riding your bike to the store are a good start, but at least one individual must take it a step further-the Oxy Environmental Club is in need of a new president.

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