By wpengine October 21, 2002
About 100 students from Cornell, Brown, Columbia, and Princeton Universities, Dartmouth College and University of Pennsylvania met at Cornell this weekend for the fifth annual Greening of the Ivies conference. Organized by the Cornell Greens with help from other University groups, the conference brought together environmental leaders from each school to discuss issues and coordinate action. The purpose of the convention, according to the Cornell Greens’ website, was “to collaborate as the students of the Ivy League, and unite our efforts in specific campaigns in order to make our voices louder.” The conference kicked off on Friday afternoon with a promotional event with Ben and Jerry’s One Sweet Whirled campus tour. Handing out free ice cream samples and brochures, members of Cornell environmental organizations hoped the event would create buzz about the conference. “Ben and Jerry’s, One Sweet World, they’re all big names, attention getters,” said Odette Mucha ’05, a conference organizer and member of the Cornell Greens. Later that night, about 30 conference participants from Cornell met in the Kaufman Auditorium in Goldwin Smith to listen to Prof. Don Barr, city and regional planning, speak on coalition building. Among other experiences, Barr described his memories of participating in the divestment activist movement against apartheid at Cornell. He described how both the students and faculty worked together during the protests. “If you can get the faculty involved with the students, you’ve got a powerful coalition there. But I’ve found it’s hard as hell to get the faculty out there,” he said. “I believe on a college campus, building a movement is one of the hardest things you can do. This is a transient community.” Conference participants seemed to appreciate the speech. “It was really motivating … to know faculty at Cornell are along the same line as students,” said Joe Sambataro ’05, treasurer for the Society of Natural Resources Conservation. On Saturday morning, conference organizers officially welcomed all of the participating schools, with help from Susan H. Murphy ’73, vice president for student and academic services. After participants introduced themselves, Bria Morgan ’04, conference organizer and Cornell Greens member, described the purpose of the conference. “We can accomplish a lot just by being who we are and where we go to school,” she said. Later, Murphy explained the University’s support of the environmental movements. “I applaud you for your advocacy work. We don’t always agree [on] how you do it … [but] at the heart [of it], you’re doing the right thing,” she said. She then described a joint statement agreed upon by President Hunter R. Rawlings, the Cornell Greens and the Student Assembly, which pledged to improve the campus environment through a variety of actions. People from other environmental organizations agreed with Murphy’s support of the conference. “Greening of the Ivies is a really terrific opportunity for student environmental leaders to harness the power and prestige of the Ivy League schools to work in collaboration for environmental victories,” said Frankie Lind ’01, the East Coast Field Organizer for Ecopledge. The day continued with a series of nine workshops put together by various environmental organizations. They ranged from “Challenging Corporate Crime” by Casey Harrell of Greenpeace, to “Politics, Government and Environmentalism,” presented by Dan Lamb, executive aide to Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). Cornell students ran three of these workshops; the first, “Why Should You Go Tree-Free?” was a coordinated effort between Rainforest Action Network and Cornell Society for Natural Resources Conservation. Members of Kyoto Now! presented “Kyoto and Beyond: Tactics for Climate Change Activism,” while Dan Fireside grad and the Eco House organized a workshop on “Globalization and Fair Trade Coffee.” “The workshops were excellent,” said Sarah Hackney, a freshman at Dartmouth. “It was very informal, and that way we really learned a lot.” On Saturday evening, the keynote panel discussion on sustainability featured Prof. Robert Young, city and regional planning, Prof. Kathleen Whitlock, molecular biology and genetics, Lanny Joyce, manager of engineering planning and energy, Lind and current Cornell students. Highlights included a speech made by Young and audience participation in the discussion, according to Morgan. “[There were] lots of passionate questions,” she said. The conference ended with a closing meeting yesterday morning where participants discussed the proposed Ivy League Environmental Coalition. Organizers and attendees agreed that, overall, the conference went well. “The conference rocked!” Morgan said. Archived article by Shannon Brescher
By wpengine October 21, 2002
This weekend, at the Greening of the Ivies conference at the University, environmental student leaders from Cornell, Brown, Princeton and Yale Universities, as well as University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College formed the Ivy League Environmental Coalition (ILEC). As its charter states, ILEC is a non-partisan coalition whose goals include coordinating environmental activities and campaigns across schools, facilitating communications between organizations, conveying opinions to the press and public and to, “save the world.” In addition to these goals, the charter also establishes an executive council and a system of delegates to represent the various schools and coordinate activities. Although the Greening of the Ivies conference is an annual event in its fifth year, the ILEC is the first time the groups have joined together in a permanent organization. The idea occurred naturally, growing from a variety of people’s ideas, according to James Deboer, a sophomore at Brown who wrote the charter. “I thought it was a good idea and I think a lot of people had it in their minds to make a lasting organization,” he said. The ILEC began as an idea of coordinating efforts between schools, one of the goals of the Greening of the Ivies conference. The idea of coalition building permeated the conference, beginning with Friday night’s speech by Prof. Donald Barr, city and regional planning. “I think it would be really something … [if you built] a strong coalition and keep in touch with each other,” he said. The idea of the ILEC continued to develop after a series of workshops on Saturday afternoon and a panel discussion on Saturday night. Talking over dinner, the group created the document from a consensus of ideas from all students. Yesterday morning, during the closing meeting of the conference, participants ratified the charter with a unanimous thumbs-up. Many students believe that the ILEC is an important step towards coordinated environmental action between schools. “I feel that the spirit of this kind of thing was present at the previous Greening of the Ivies conferences but we’ve never had a group to implement it for us,” said Bria Morgan ’04, a member of the Cornell Greens. “I think it’s going to start being a much more active, much more useful group.” Christelle Munnelly ’05, president of the Cornell Greens, agreed. “You could tell it was really going to last this time. In other years, it was a lot of talk, [and] no action but this year was different,” she said. In addition to furthering action, the coalition may increase each individual organization’s influence, according to Barr. “The inter-university [aspect] gives them an enormous amount of potential power,” he said. Most of the student leaders present expressed enthusiasm for the idea. “I think it’s an excellent idea for further communication,” said Justin Spenser, of the Princeton Environmental Network. “It’s the same idea as the conferences, just intensifying communications.” Archived article by Shannon Brescher