WMU students continue history of sustainability

Congratulations to the students of Western Michigan University for approving the Sustainability Fund by a 400-vote margin. The fund is a good idea.

It’s worth mentioning that ecology and the environment have historically been strengths at WMU. The first three chairs of the biology department, 1908-1963 were ecologists — in an era when ecology wasn’t a well-known branch of biology.

The papers and library of one of the pioneer American ecologists, Charles C. Adams, were donated to the school in 1958. The environmental studies program, designed in 1970 and initiated in 1971, was in the first round of academic environmental programs founded in the U.S.
Environmental studies students have been strong players in the efforts to save the Colony Farm Orchard, as they had been in other university-related issues in earlier years.
WMU students being willing to tax themselves $16 per year shows a serious commitment to sustainability. The administration and board may profit from their example.

Richard Brewer
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=16090

Posted by heraldstaff on Mar 28 2010. Filed under Letters to the Editor, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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