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Chattanooga: Environmental concern grows on campuses

By: Joan Garrett
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At the University of the South in Sewanee, some students are living in the Eco House and farming organically.

At the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the motto is “Make Orange Green.”

And at UTC, students OK’d a fee on themselves to make the campus more environmentally friendly.

But Cameron Pruette, a student at the conservative-Christian Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., has grown up hearing the environmental movement described as a liberal conspiracy.

College students in the Tennessee Valley have been leading the charge for a green revolution.

“My parents have been skeptical,” the 19-year-old said. “Both of them would say it is a conspiracy, sounding the alarm as liberals tend to do, an attempt to expand government and to make businesses and people out to be bad.”

Yet in the last year, Mr. Pruette’s attitude has shifted. He and other students at Christian colleges are re-examining their beliefs about environmental responsibility.

Lee administrators and faculty are hosting discussions about climate change and conservation and working to put a religious twist on the green fever sweeping other campuses. Words on a napkin holder in the Lee University coffee shop now say: “Think Green!”

But they’re behind the trend.

students drive change

Campus Environment 2008, a recent report published by the National Wildlife Federation, ranked Tennessee as among the top 15 states in the country with university sustainability programs.

Efforts toward carbon neutrality, energy conservation and waste reductions have been driven, in large part, by students, Tennessee officials say.

At the University of the South, administrators and students are weaving beliefs about environmental responsibility into everything from curriculum to student housing, said Laurie Saxton, a spokeswoman for Sewanee.

Course listings include religion and ecology, regional land use policy, African environmental history and environmental literature. Outside class, students are reminded about green issues by environmental resident assistants in each dorm who keep an eye on recycling efforts and energy use, she said.

Students who want to take their passion about green living to the next level move into the Eco House, an environmentally sustainable dwelling with an organic garden for students who want to immerse themselves in eco-friendly living, said Ms. Saxton.

In the mid-’90s at UT, a small group of students began to call for environmental action, and today green initiatives can be found in nearly every corner of campus, said Jay Mayfield, a spokesman for the university.

In 2004, UT became the first university in the state to implement a student green fee to fund sustainability initiatives on campus. The $5 per semester fee, approved by the student body, has been used to purchase green power from TVA — the campus spent $144,000 on green power last year — and improve the campus’ eco-profile.

“Environmentalism and taking steps toward a sustainable campus are a key part of the culture at UT,” Mr. Mayfield said. “For students, faculty and the state, ‘Make Orange Green’ is a key part of everything we do as a campus.”

Like UT, environmental reform began on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus in the ’90s with the formations of the student groups, said Brad Reynolds, a lecturer on environmental science and faculty advisor for EDGE, the student environmental group at UTC.

A little over two years ago, EDGE began campaigning for a green fee of $10 per student per semester. It was approved last year by 72 percent of students, and this year the campus launched a new recycling initiative.

“It was one of the biggest turnouts in recent (Student Government Association) elections,” he said. “I think that was the tipping point.”

Building projects on campus also are impacted by environmental sensitivities. UTC’s new library will be built to the standards of the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED certification, said Chuck Cantrell, a spokesman for UTC.

LEED is a certification program that recognizes high-performance green buildings, according to the U.S. Green Building Council Web site.

global warming debated

While some schools have been working to certify sustainable buildings on campus, trading gas-powered vehicles for electric and installing low-flow shower heads in dorms, others have been slower to jump on the bandwagon.

It’s only been in the last year that many Christian conservative schools in the area had their first campus-wide discussion about whether global warming is a man-made phenomenon. According to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, about 40 of 105 schools nationwide have significant green initiatives.

In January, Lee University, a Church of God school, hosted Focus the Nation, a national program intended to raise awareness about global warming. It was a controversial event on campus, but more than half of the campus population attended, said Whitney Hemphill, a staff organizer of the event.

“You can be green without being super-liberal,” said Ms. Hemphill. “To me it is a Christian philosophy. It is a part of my faith. If I really believed that God created this planet and called us to be stewards over it, it is part of my worship. Why should I be considered liberal for saying, ‘Don’t abuse the planet’?”

Like Lee University, both Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, Ga., and Bryan College in Dayton, have hosted forums to discuss the validity of global warming, officials said. But while the events have launched conversation, they have not necessarily changed minds, said Emily Echols, a senior at Bryan College majoring in communications.

“We don’t think global warming is that big of a deal,” said Ms. Echols. “It is not at all what it is being hyped up to be. I think it is a trendy issue being used politically. We don’t want to get involved.”

Ollie J. Lee, a sociology professor at Lee, said Christian schools like Lee have not fully embraced the green movement because they fear the political implications of aligning with a cause traditionally viewed as liberal. There also has been a lack of understanding about the scientific knowledge on climate change, he said.

“People say this is a politically motivated movement pushing bad science,” he said. “It is a matter of priority and awareness.”

As more Americans and campuses are swept into the green revolution, what churches teach about humans’ responsibility to the Earth is changing, said Mr. Pruette.

“The message was, ‘We should rule over the earth. God created it so it will never run out,’” said Mr. Pruette. “Now the message is, ‘If God has put time into all his creation, yes, we should rule over the earth but we should do so responsibly.’”

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