By Malori Maloney
The following is in response to Jeff Ryan's article, "Let's not lose 'focus' on our other priorities," in last week's Beacon. As a member of the organizing committee of Focus the Nation (FTN), I'd like to express how much all of us who worked hard to put it on appreciate feedback. So far, the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive, both within our community and from the public.
FTN allowed students, faculty and members of the community at large to participate and engage in unique lecture sessions and dialogue about the increasingly serious issue of climate change, an issue we will all be dealing with for the rest of our lives.
In his article, Ryan asserts, "sustainability (as a general principle) is an admirable goal." Unfortunately, the mere principle of sustainability is useless in and of itself; the idea must be put into action. While I commend Ryan on his habits of bicycling and recycling, in order to make a significant impact, we must mobilize others to follow suit and get our message out to politicians and the community at large (by means of events such as FTN) and seek change on a national level. Though our actions as individuals are significant, massive change will only occur with improved legislation in regards to sustainable practices. FTN provided a forum in which to brainstorm the most effective changes to adopt nationally.
Ryan decries "the growing lust to be a leader in sustainability that is overshadowing the University's prior commitments and mission." We do not lust to make UP a leader in sustainability; rather, we strive to do so in order to better the University community, society, future generations, and the earth. Nineteen-hundred other institutions across the country were thinking along the same lines that day. Furthermore, we have signed the President's Climate Commitment and must honor this. Climate change education and action does not overshadow anything - it's part of our overall mission.
Organizers of FTN worked hard for ASUP funds through student clubs. All the clubs that received money to support this event feel their money was extremely well spent. Ryan also counts costs in terms of "students whose classrooms were taken" for FTN, allegedly resulting in a combined loss of $29,311.51 in tuition dollars.
However, there were many open classrooms where any of the eight temporarily displaced classes could have met that day. In other words, displaced classes were not forced to lose class time as a result of FTN, so the combined loss Ryan cites is inaccurate. Contrary to Ryan's claims, staff who voluntarily cancelled classes or willingly dedicated time to the event were not forced to do so.
Ryan contrasts the prominence of "overflowing bike racks" with the less conspicuous location of the Moreau Center. Bike racks are "overflowing" because we have relatively few of them on campus. Far more students drive to school than bike and many students who opt to drive live within a mile radius of campus! This is just one example of behavior at UP that demonstrates that we still have a long way to go as a sustainable community.
Ryan notes the inconspicuous location of the Moreau Center in terms of its physical location and its placement on the UP Web site. However, the Center is very successful where it is; Washington Monthly ranked UP first among all the nation's colleges and universities for national service. On the other hand, Lewis and Clark was the first campus in the nation to comply with greenhouse gas emissions targets called for in Kyoto Protocol and received Portland General Electric's second annual Green Power Leadership Award.
Although UP has one LEED certified building, we still have a long way to go before we can really consider ourselves to be a sustainable campus, whereas we are already ahead in the realm of volunteer work in general. So shouldn't we place our focus on the things we need to improve the most? What's more, FTN was completely volunteer-run, very much in line with the work of the Moreau Center.
FTN was an academically based event, with all sessions involving aspects of the core questions, including, "How does the world work?" and "How could the world work better?"
Ryan emphasizes that "the skills we learn in our scheduled classes such as engineering, chemistry and political science are what arm us to tackle the world's challenges." What use are such skills learned in these classes without the knowledge of practical applications to current issues? Focus the Nation provided a perfect opportunity to apply skills learned in class to real-world situations.
Malori Maloney is a junior ?psychology major
