Central Texas Climate Action Network

From The Daily Texan
Event targets university energy use

Toree Roy

Daily Texan Staff

Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008

Lisa Madry, the campus field director for the National Wildlife Federation, offered tips to professors and students at Wednesday’s Central Texas Campus Climate Summit on how to incorporate conversations on climate change and other environmental issues affecting the world into course syllabi and everyday conversation.

“People teach the subjects they’re teaching the same way they learned it; the environment has changed, yet professors aren’t changing their approach to deal with sustainability and the climate crisis,” Madry said.

The summit provided colleges and universities an opportunity to discuss ways to reduce emissions and curb global warming.

The Central Texas Climate Action network, a group composed of faculty and students from various campuses that will continue the discussions held at the summit on statewide university campuses, was formed during the summit.

“We are trying to build a strong network … where groups, faculty and students from various campuses can continue the discussions held at the summit year-round,” said Praween Dayananda, campus field coordinator for the wildlife federation.

Various universities around the state, including UT, Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas State, St. Edwards and Austin Community College were represented at the conference. Students and faculty members exchanged ideas about clean energy, “greening” initiatives on campuses and ways to encourage student engagement in environmental endeavors. The summit was hosted by the wildlife federation, the city of Austin and St. Edward’s University.

Karen Blaney, staff adviser for UT’s Campus Environmental Center, discussed the monthlong UT Energy Challenge in November, in which campus dorms and off-campus cooperative housing will compete to see if they have decreased their energy use from the previous year.

“Two years ago Campus Environmental Center was just a registered student organization, but it grew as far as the income it received and the amount of people it informed,” Blaney said.

Amanda Grosgebauer, chair of the Texas A&M Environmental Issues Committee, said she is always looking for new ideas to engage students. In past years, the committee has screened movies and organized a global warming concert featuring Sheryl Crow.

“We have to hear what’s working for other campuses and how we can use their strategy as a model for our efforts,” Grosgebauer said.

Ken Hoffman, a representative for the ACC Environmental, Health and Safety Department, talked about the difficulties of engaging students on their various campuses.

“Our campuses are like separate entities in that they each focus on different subject matter and thus the student population of each campus is slightly different,” Hoffman said. “Since we don’t have a core group of students based in one area, it creates a challenge of engaging students to participate with these issues.”