Sustainability-Focus the Nation

October 23, 2007

Global warming is a defining challenge of our time. The world's leading scientists have ended the debate: emissions caused by human beings are responsible for climate change that will threaten the planet 's ecosystem, the world economy and the lives of millions. Human activities are responsible for the problem and working together we have the capacity to solve the problem.

At the beginning of this millennium, sustainability was on the horizon but not yet a major force in higher education. Today it is.

And as we green our campus operations, work toward climate neutrality, and instill sustainability principles into our planning for policies and curricula, higher education institutions will be centers for change for the rest of society.

At Willamette we educate the young men and women who will solve the problems and change the world. We educate them to humanity by helping them to understand their connectivity to the world around them: not only their connectivity to natural laws or to outward expressions of aesthetic and cultural forms or to economic and political structures but also to the earth and the environment that sustains life.

The creation of the Sustainability Council, the Center for Sustainable Communities, our commitment to using sustainable practices in renovating and building our facilities are just few examples of Willamette's efforts to increase awareness and encourage action in our community of learning and living. We are one of the signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in which we pledge to provide strategic direction to address the educational, research and operational changes needed to combat global warning; to accelerate the process through knowledge sharing, the development of common standards and best practices, and buying power.

The Green Torch Rally represents the enormous power that students have to effect positive change.

As you have heard, The Green Torch Relay will deliver an invitation to Oregon's elected leaders in Salem on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007, asking them to participate in Focus The Nation 's round-table discussion on global warming solutions Jan. 31, 2008.

The Green Torch Relay started at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007 from Portland. Students from Lewis and Clark and University of Portland will finish the relay at Jackson Plaza and students and faculty from all three schools will deliver an invitation to our representatives at 12:30 p.m., Oct. 23, 2007 on the steps of the state capitol in Salem.

Staff members from the offices of senators Wyden and Smith will be present to accept the invitation. Approximately 100 students from University of Portland, Lewis & Clark College and Willamette University will walk, run, bike and paddle for Focus The Nation's Green Torch Relay. Organized entirely by key students at these schools, the invitation will include approximately 3,000 student signatures.

This is education at its best. I want to thank the organizers-on our campus as well as elsewhere-for extraordinary leadership on an issue that affects us and the planet Earth that we call home.