March 2008 Campuswide Memorandum on Sustainability

On 25 March 2008 Vicki Sibley sent a memorandum written by President Roger Taylor regarding sustainability to the entire campus. The memo, duplicated below, is most readily recalled for its reference to frogs that may or may not have been affected by the environment.

Criticism

The memo received criticism around campus and in TKS for its hesitancy to do more than recognize that environmental issues may or may not be important, and for its apparent conclusion that beginning to form a plan to tackle sustainability issues was sufficient progress at the time. The memo, in discussing the process of planning for sustainability initiatives, made no mention of the Engstrom Report, an assessment of Knox's sustainability situation completed by Oberlin's Sustainability Coordinator in late 2007; the report, which the administration and the Senate Environment and Sustainability Committee withheld as confidential until May 2008, provided as part of its recommendations a framework for short-and long-term action. Several weeks after releasing this memo, President Taylor temporarily suspended the Sustainability Task Force lauded in the memo and only permitted its reconvention once it had set the promotion of campus civility as its new primary goal.

Text of the Memo

During the brief retired phase of our lives, Anne and I enjoyed sitting on the front porch of our farm house in Fulton County and listening to the frogs croak at Bruce White's farm up the road. We get to the farm less often now, but during the summer of 2006 we noticed that we didn't hear the frogs. The frogs were gone. I can't tell you why for sure, but I am persuaded that it has something to do with the degradation to which we have subjected our planet.

That fall, '06, it became apparent to me that there were a considerable number of Knox students and several faculty who were interested in what many of us call "sustainability." While the voices of the frogs at Bruce White's farm had gone away, student voices supporting sustainability had grown stronger.

As encouraged by the students' voices as I was saddened by the disappearance of the frogs, I persuaded the Board of Trustees to include advancing sustainability as an element of the College's strategic plan. The Board formally adopted the strategic plan in October 2007. The Board's action was consistent with its authorization of a $2 million energy conservation projects completed in 2001 and a second, $2.5 million energy conservation project completed in 2006.

During fall term 2007, the Student Senate Sustainability Committee agreed to help me advance sustainability on campus. We formed a presidential task force and invited Professors Kasser, Brenda Fineberg, and Schwartzman and Director of Facilities Scott Maust to join us. The task force has met regularly during winter term -- at 8:00 a.m. no less! We have considered several possible courses of action, begun to develop a Knox sustainability web site, and started to develop a plan to enhance sustainability at Knox. We have also encouraged the Faculty Campus Environment Committee in its efforts to include sustainability as an element of its work in developing recommendations concerning the College's physical environment.

The task force's first public action will be to facilitate a series of discussions on campus. We will ask participants from a variety of groups on campus to consider several issues, including what we already do that promotes sustainability, what we do that hampers sustainability, what each of us could do differently, and what the College could do differently to help promote sustainability. We encourage you to attend one of the meetings and share your opinions. The task force will analyze the results of the meetings and use them to map next steps for each of us and for the College to pursue.

We have made a start towards sustainability. With the help of the entire community, we will make more progress and develop a culture of sustainability at Knox of which we can be proud. Knox College can set an example on sustainability — an example that I hope may even result in the return of the frogs to Bruce White's pond by the time Anne and I resume our retirement at our farm.

Roger