The University has approved the creation of a new Office of Sustainability to lead and organize the environmental efforts of student groups on campus.
Members of Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED) brought up the idea for the office with University President Morton O. Schapiro and Senior Vice President Eugene Sunshine, said SEED co-chair Emmaline Pohnl. Administrators approved the office in late March, placing the office within Facilities Management.
The University will benefit from having someone who is tasked with handling sustainability issues on campus, said Julie Cahillane, manager of refuse and recycling at Facilities Management.
“Right now there’s a whole lot going on across campus, but it’s happening with students, it’s happening with (the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern), it’s happening with faculty doing projects-it’s happening all over,” she said. “This position will be a great way to consolidate it and have a central person planning and moving forward with these ideas in a cohesive way.”
The manager, for which the University has an opening, will evaluate the needs of the University community with a focus on integrating sustainability into both the operational and academic functions of the University. He or she will also manage internal and external resources to accomplish that goal, according to the official job description from Facilities Management.
Designating a specific position shows the University is prioritizing sustainability, Pohnl said.”It’s symbolic in that it shows that the University is serious about becoming sustainable because they’re willing to spend money to hire someone to constantly focus on this,” the SESP junior said.
Julia Brook, the former Associated Student Government senator for SEED who in Fall Quarter drafted an ASG resolution in support of creating the office, said she was disappointed the position did not exist.
“I made it very clear why Northwestern needed one and why it was kind of-I’m not sure if embarrassing is the right term, but in the same vein as that, that we did not have one,” the Weinberg senior said.
Up until now, different student groups have tried to step up to fill the position’s responsibilities, said Jennie van den Boogaard, president of Environmental Campus Outreach.
“We started forming other groups to take that place, which other schools would have,” the SESP freshman said.
However, sustainability efforts by those organizations have been generally disorganized and resulted in a lot of overlap, Pohnl said. The Office of Sustainability will help to coordinate and plan future projects.
“If we all are on the same page, things would progress a lot faster,” she said. “There would be greater momentum for sustainability initiatives on campus.” [email protected]
