I work for a rather large, reputable university in New York City. I graduated from this university, turned my work study job into full time employment, and am now enjoying working towards that unfathomable, nirvana-esque land called No More Debt.
Through my job I get the opportunity to see a fair share more than the average student: how departments spend excess money; how they move numbers around so that they don’t SEEM to have excess but rather have a deficit; how to petty cash a night out on the town as well as the cab ride to work in the morning to avoid loud commuters, etc. Many things seem horrific; as a regular (and by regular, I mean not rich) student who drew all loans against my own name, worked at least one (if not two) jobs each semester, and sweated through at least a shirt and a half a day running back and forth, I was quite upset about all of this.
Nothing, however, could match my resentment, my utter horror, when my department began drafting instructional packets for our 2011 commencement ceremony before-and-after schedules. I noticed that we no longer had a tab labeled “Green Initiatives.” We did, however, have a brand new, supposedly pristine campus in a middle eastern country known for producing something that–I’ll give you a hint–has the potential to power a great many things needed in the average American’s daily life.
In the same week, I was made aware that it wasn’t necessary to separate my paper from my regular trash-they were now going in the same bin, because we were no longer going to be recycling. Huh?
That was several weeks ago. Since construction first began on the middle eastern satellite campus, reports had surfaced that the president of our university has been flying there and back nearly every weekend. I can’t quite convince myself that he’s a) paying out of pocket, or b) using up an amazing number of frequent flier miles from the past.
It seems to me that the cutbacks intended to push the university’s prestige and reputation forward have actually left us in the dust in terms of the eco-friendly initiatives that many other universities in the country have embraced. Was it really necessary to spend millions on a campus that most of our university students will only ever see Google images of?
Part of our university’s mission is to achieve a truly international, global network of learning for students. I am proud of my department for it’s hard work and dedication to students’ life and culture in and around the campus. But if the sun never sets on this university, there’s no time to sleep on it–something most people do before making huge decisions like foregoing one kind of Green for another.
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