By Editorial
There's being green and then there's being green.
The University of Portland's push to establish a department of environmental science takes the University from being green to being green.
For the past two years, since the birth of Focus the Nation, the University of Portland has sat somewhat under-appreciated in the shadows of the praise-deserving Reed and Lewis and Clark Colleges.
Yes, we have LEED-certified buildings. Yes, we hosted the state wide Focus the Nation party in 2008 and yes, we have plans to create a salmon hatchery within River Campus. But aside from those examples, our university has been reticent, perhaps due to the demand of other pressing issues, to take concrete steps in making itself a major green player.
The establishment of an environmental studies department shows the University's commitment in substance, not just style.
The new department fosters the desires of the student body that has been known to boycott meat, paper cups and the removal of campus trees. Furthermore, with the creation of this department, the University is handing jobs to future UP graduates on a silver platter because the future of our country is headed toward a bright green future.
Portland, for example, is one of the cities at the forefront of the green movement in the nation. Vestas, the world's leading supplier in modern energy, just recently located its world headquarters on the South waterfront. All the while the Gorge is blooming with windmills faster than spring flowers are blossoming.
