University presidents form environmental network
“There may always be rivalry among schools ON the football field, but it is wonderful to see South Carolina schools coming together IN the field to secure South Carolina’s environmental future,” said Bruce Coull, Ph.D., dean of the University of South Carolina’s School of the Environment.
MUSC
President Ray Greenberg, center, Clemson University President James Barker,
left, and USC President John Palms celebrate the third anniversary of the
Sustainable Universities Inititative and reaffirm their commitment to the
inititative.
Coull, principal investigator of the Sustainable Universities Initiative (SUI), is referring to the network created by Clemson University, MUSC and the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1998.
SUI was established to lead the way toward a more sustainable future through teaching, research, community service and facilities management.
At a recent conference, MUSC President Ray Greenberg, Clemson President James Barker, and USC President John Palms came together with the presidents of other South Carolina four-year and technical schools to celebrate SUI’ s three-year anniversary and to reaffirm their support in writing. What began as a joint effort by Clemson, MUSC, and USC, grew in 2000 when the state’s General Assembly supported expansion of the program to 13 other state-supported institutions of higher education. Eight of those schools joined the research universities in signing the affirmation, including Central Carolina Technical College, Coastal Carolina University, the College of Charleston, Francis Marion University, Lander University, Midlands Technical College, Trident Technical College and Winthrop University.The Sustainable Universities Initiative is privately funded by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.
It was founded on the belief that higher education must take an active role in educating future leaders to understand the global implications of complex economic, environmental and societal issues.
Sustainability has already become increasingly institutionalized at participating schools so that their teaching, research, community service and facilities management reflect greater commitment to a sustainable future.
Graduating students are entering the increasingly international work world better prepared to contribute and are making more informed choices about how their personal and professional actions impact the future viability and health of Earth.
A notable outcome of SUI is the use of the campus as a laboratory, where students learn real-world skills while they help solve campus problems.
Also noteworthy are more than 80 SUI mini-grants that are funding new courses and research on topics such as: sustainable tourism in South Carolina; hydrogen fuel cell power at USC; the integration of sustainability into the English curriculum at Clemson and USC; vermicomposting at MUSC; and using environmental chemistry to attract students to careers in science.
Matching funds have made pilot projects possible and fostered an interest
in “green campuses” across the state. SUI has also worked closely with
facilities management and operations at the three universities to develop
an Environmental Management System (EMS) for higher education, similar
to ISO 14000 used by industry.