SSC Victories 2006-2008

Congratulations to you all on an AMAZING year of the Campus Climate Challenge!

As we wrap up school-year 1 of the Challenge, we are thrilled to report that SSC students and the whole Energy Action Coalition have gotten some amazing work done! You have educated hundreds of thousands of your peers, lobbied hundreds of school administrators, met with mayors, worked in solidarity with impacted communities, and fought to stop dirty power plants. You've held events ranging from "Do It In The Dark" parties to thousand-person Step It Up rallies; you have built on- and off-campus coalitions; you've hosted speakers and held rallies; and you have earned hundreds of media hits.

Your hard work has paid off: SSC students have won a whopping 62 victories on campus this year! This includes at least 13 commitments to climate neutrality, either through the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment or otherwise. You also enacted green building policies, improved energy efficiency, secured biodiesel-fueled campus fleets, closed off campus roads to cars, and got your schools to turn off the computers at night.

We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us in the coming months. As we continue our efforts on campus and in our communities, and as we take our message to our leaders at the national level, your energy, creativity, and passion will be needed even more than ever before. But most of all, here at SSC HQ, we hope that you will all take a moment to breathe deep, smile, and congratulate yourselves for a job well done, because you deserve it. And then... let's get back to work!

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SSC Victories List
To add or update a victory, please contact Maura Cowley, National Campaign Coordinator, at campaign@ssc.org

2007 - 2008

Massachusetts Youth Climate Action Network - 1 victory
In September 2007, students from across the state of Massachusetts formed the Massachusetts Youth Climate Action (MYCA) network. MYCA's goal is to pass Senator Pacheco's Global Warming Solutions Act, which calls for greenhouse gas reductions of 80% by 2050. Originally the bill did not include Green Jobs language. Earlier this month, at a legislative hearing in North Adams, Morgan Goodwin, co-president of the Williams College student body and a volunteer with the Sierra Student Coalition, gave a brief testimony on the importance of green pathways out of poverty. He asked Senator Pacheco to include the words "green jobs training program" in this piece of legislation. Impressed by Morgan's testimony, Senator Pacheco assured the MYCA that "It'll definitely be in there."

University of Wisconsin - La Crosse - 1 victory
In the Spring of 2007, students at UW - La Crosse met with incoming Chancellor Joe Gow in his first month on campus to present him with more than 1400 signatures from students, faculty, and staff members in support of the Talloires Declaration. The Chancellor was supportive, but unwilling to sign at that time without Faculty Senate's backing. Although the Declaration had widespread student support, when brought to Faculty Senate it faced some controversy. After establishing an ad hoc committee to evaluate the Document and its potential at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, the Faculty Senate recommended that Chancellor Gow sign the Declaration. In October of 2007, Chancellor Gow not only agreed to sign the Talloires Declaration, but to establish a permanent committee that will implement the Declaration and ensure that sustainability will be a priority on campus.


2006 - 2007

Bates College - 1 victory
Students at Bates secured a climate neutrality victory by pressuring their president to sign AASHE's President's Climate Commitment. Led by Mike Pickoff and Jack Murphy, students gathered 600 student petition signatures, held numerous outreach and education events, lobbied members of the administration and earned media. Like the group at Northeastern, students will next work to nail down shorter-term, concrete emissions reductions commitments from the college.

Birmingham Southern College - 1 victory
Thanks to the work of Cori Anderson and her group at BSC, the college's president signed the President's Climate Commitment during the spring semester of 2007. The students had successfully had pressured the President to sign onto the Talloires Declaration previously. Having already completed that effort, the president felt it was natural to also sign the ACUPCC.

Bowdoin College - 1 victory
This fall, Bowdoin College was recognized as an EPA Green Power Partner after the purchase of 100% renewable electricity. Bowdoin joined the Green Power Partner list after a student-run campaign that began last spring succeeded in securing a commitment from President Barry Mills and Treasurer Catherine Longley.

Carleton College - 2 victories
Carleton College signed the President's Climate Commitment in March 2007. Carleton had already committed itself to carbon-neutrality in the spring of 2006, so the signing of the commitment was a reaffirmation of a pledge the school had already made. Students spent the spring compiling research on a roadmap to neutrality that they presented to the president. In the spring of 2007, students with SOPE (Students Organized for the Protection of the Environment), led by Whit Jones, secured at least $35,000 in funding for a clean energy revolving loan fund. The fund began when the student government discovered that it had a surplus budget, and approached SOPE asking for suggestions for the money. The group suggested the revolving fund and explained thoroughly how it works and what could be accomplished. The student government pledged $17,500, and SOPE began asking for others to match their offer. The vice-president of the school offered matching funds, and they secured at least $5000 from the Environmental Advisory Committee.

College of the Atlantic - 1 victory
This fall, the College of the Atlantic announced a trustee resolution to become carbon neutral by 2015. Several students were involved in that decision and the committee that will be taking it further will be primarily made up of students. Students will also be involved with managing the fund that will be used for investments in carbon pollution offsets.

College of the Holy Cross - 1 victory
Meghan Tighe and her Eco-Action group at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachussetts convinced their physical plant to spondor a CFL exchange for their campus. They stayed visible on campus all year by holding events like Step It Up, participating in the Week of Action, screening films like An Inconvenient Truth, and selling t-shirts to support their group. They also held numerous meetings with their adminstration and gained significant media coverage in the on-campus paper. In the coming school year, Eco-Action looks forward to expanding the CFL exchange, participating in Focus the Nation, and pursuing a renewable energy purchase at their college.

Cornell University - 2 victories
Led by Katherine McEachern and Carlos Rymer, the students of KyotoNOW! at Cornell University achieved two victories in the spring 2007 semester. The first victory ensured climate neutrality and the second victory ensured immediate policy changes to begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a year. Students secured the climate neutrality victory by pressuring their president to sign the ACUPCC. Tactics that were used to win this portion of the campaign include gathering 4,000 student petition signatures and 50+ professor petition signatures, forming a coalition of 10 student organizations, numerous outreach and education events, lobbying of the administration and earned media. The second victory was the passage of a "green fee." Students secured this victory by passing a student government referendum and organizing a get out the vote effort for the student fee, which was passed by the student body. Students will continue to secure short term policy victories and should remain involved with the development of a climate neutrality plan for Cornell.

Creighton University � 1 victory
Patrick Sechser, Anastasia Yanchilina and their group at Creighton University in MO succeded in implementing small but significant changes at Creighton this year. Thanks to their work, Creighton is putting in new oxygenated shower-heads in their dorms to reduce water loss, and has installed compact fluorescent bulbs to cut down on energy costs. Creighton also appears to finally be implementing a campus-wide recycling program after many years of strategizing, and is composting coffee grounds and ensuring fair-trade coffee is sold on campus. The students held events that included a film festival, Step It Up rally and banner hanging, speaker events and tabling on campus. They also worked with other clubs like the Gay/Straight Alliance, Medical Students for Social Responsibility, Residence Life, UNO Environmental Club, Social Justice Club and the Atmospheric Science Society. Finally, they formed an Environmental activist club, got many articles in the student newspaper and succeeded in getting the environmental message out to a wider audience.

Dickinson College � 1 victory
At Dickinson students had been organizing for dramatic emissions reductions through both their student-run organization and a larger multi-stakeholder group that included faculty and administrators as well as student representatives. The students used that group to push for ambitious goals while organizing events, petitioning and working with secondary targets to create the support and pressure for these initiatives. Thanks to their hard work, the president signed the ACUPCC this year.

Elon University � 1 victory
Christine Irvine and her group at Elon have been pushing for Carbon Neutrality to be included in the Campus Sustainability Plan which has been under development and review in the spring of 2007. It is indeed included in the plan, which was presented to the Board of Directors.

Louisiana State University - 2 victories
At Louisiana State University, the student-run Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO) convinced administrators to close off the nine major roads into the campus and establish new bus routes to increase transportation efficiency and decrease carbon pollution from automobiles. ECO, led by Lauren Stuart and Rachel Guillory, held lobby visits and awareness events to make sure that the school followed through with their commitment to close the main roads on campus to regular traffic. The ECO group also created the �Gold Bike Program� through which free bicycles are available for students to ride around campus. These bicycles are now available as a result of ECO�s bike awareness events and their collaboration with the Student Government.

Macalester College � 4 victories
This fall, students at Macalester College established a $67,000 clean energy revolving fund at the college. They are now looking to put this money toward building a wind turbine. Over the summer of 2006, Macalester students also secured an EPA P3 grant for green buildings and installed a green roof on an on-campus building. Macalester's president signed the ACUPCC in February 2007. The policy was signed at the request of the student group, MacCARES, after they helped convince the president in meetings that the benchmarks of the policy were attainable. The college�s president also committed to building Minnesota 's first LEED platinum building. Timothy DenHerder-Thomas, Laura Bartolomei-Hill, and Oliver Cano were some of the key students securing these victories. That the students were able to achieve these victories with relative ease is not a fluke, but rather testament to the excellent and constant organizing that takes place at Macalester. Large-scale and highly visible events like Campus Wars, where Macalester challenged other Minnesota schools to compete with them in reducing their energy use in the month of February, and a strong working relationship with the president made these wins feasible.

Middlebury College � 2 victories
During the fall semester, Middlebury College purchased $7,138 worth of carbon offsets to support an environmentally-friendly Snow Bowl in the 2006-2007 ski season. The idea for a carbon neutral Snow Bowl was first developed in a class led by Professor Jon Isham. Students in that class worked with the ski team and with Native Energy to purchase the offsets. Throughout the year, the Sunday Night Group students pushed their Board of Trustees to commit to carbon neutrality by 2017. They received that commitment during the spring semester of 2007. Tactics used include lobbying of campus administration, researching and providing a report about how carbon neutrality could be achieved, gathering petition signatures, earned media, education and awareness events and coalition building. Next year, students will be involved with the implementation of the carbon neutrality plan.

New York University � 1 victory
On October 5, 2006, NYU committed to purchasing 118 million kilowatt hours of wind energy � the largest purchase of wind energy by any university in the country � and committed to replacing 100 percent of the current petroleum energy currently supplied by Con Edison. The Green Arch Initiative has been a strong student presence pushing for renewable wind energy at NYU. Along with the 100% renewable purchase, NYU also created an Environmental Sustainability Task Force and joined the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

Northeastern Illinois University - 1 victory
Thanks to the work of Jeremy Slate and the Green Cycle Group at NEIU, the university�s board of trustees approved a green fee in June 2007.� The $3 per student per semester fee will be used to fund energy conservation, renewable energy, and other green initiatives on their campus.� The Green Cycle Group worked with the student government association to place a referendum question about the fee on the spring election ballot and campaigned all semester to educate their peers about it.� They also worked to build support within the administration.� In the end, 75% of voting students said yes to the fee!� Now, the Green Cycle Group is working to set up a committee with students and the facilities management department to choose green projects.� Check out this great article from the campus paper all about their efforts.

Northeastern University � 1 victory
Students running the Campus Climate Challenge campaign at Northeastern successfully convinced the University�s president to sign the ACUPCC during the spring semester of 2007. Jennifer Wolfson and Amanda O�Brien led the campaign, using tactics that included gathering 7,000 student petition signatures, forming a coalition of 20 student organizations, numerous outreach and education events, lobbying the administration, earned media, and securing the passage of a student government resolution. The next step for the campaign is to get a commitment from Northeastern University for a shorter term greenhouse gas reduction goal that has emissions peaking and declining before 2015 or immediately at 2% a year. In lieu of getting these commitments, students may also advocate for strong policies that could be immediately implemented, such as a 100% wind purchase or a clean energy revolving fund. Students will also be involved with the development of a climate neutrality timeline at Northeastern University.

Ohio University � 1 victory
Ohio University�s President, Roderick McDavis, signed the Presidents Climate Commitment, making an announcement the week before Earthday. Ty Dawson and his SSC group have been working for several years to create a greener campus at OU, and have reached out to hundreds of community members and students to educate them about the solutions to our energy problems. They also received significant media coverage, collected hundreds of petition signatures, and held a successful screening of An Inconvenient Truth. Thanks to this great organizing, President McDavis felt the pressure to make OU appear to be a greener institution and signed the ACUPCC.

Oklahoma University � 2 victories
Students at Oklahoma University accomplished two victories this year: they secured improvements to the on-campus bike lanes, and they convinced the university president to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. To win the bike lanes victory, SSCer Whitney Pearson and members of her group held tabling events for a couple weeks they collected hundreds of signatures, culminating in a rally on-campus that attracted on-campus media coverage. OU's president, David Boren, saw the news and received the petition and just a week after the rally ensured that fresh lines were painted, signs were added, and bike lane access and routes became more visible. To convince President Boren to sign the ACUPCC, Whitney drafted a letter to President Boren requesting an in-person meeting to discuss campus energy policy and the President's Climate Commitment. Soon after, a meeting between Whitney, 2 other OUr Earth members, and President Boren's assistant was set up. After presenting the Commitment, what other schools had signed on, and the New Energy for Campuses report, Whitney asked if President Boren would sign on to the commitment. Less than a week later, Boren got back to Whitney, writing her a personal email revealing his intent to sign the commitment, which he did publicly in late April. In signing, Boren was also influenced by a resolution that the undergraduate and graduate student senates passed. The bill, calling for campus action to address global warming, was written by Eric Pollard (a member of the Senate and of OUr Earth). Eric got other Senators to co-author the resolution with him and both Senate bodies passed it by overwhelming majorities.

Pennsylvania State University System � 20 victories
Penn State students, led by Brittany Harris and Jane Dahms, got their university to commit to a comprehensive climate policy that included the following: $10 million annually invested in retrofitting and efficiency work, 20% wind purchase, all new building LEED certified, undergraduate energy and global warming awareness and education campaign called IT Matters! and annual meetings with stakeholders from across the University to address mitigation strategies. A 17.5% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 will result from these policy changes, with growth accounted for. Over 80,000 students attend the Pennsylvania State University system which is comprised of 20 separate campuses:

Tactics that were used to win the campaign include gathering 5,000 petition student petition signatures and 45 professor signatures, forming a coalition of 15 student organizations, numerous outreach and education events, lobbying of the administration, earned media and direct action. The next step for the campaign is securing a strong post-2012 greenhouse gas reduction target.

Pomona College - 1 victory
At Pomona College in Claremont, CA a Campus Climate Challenge campaign led by Ada Aroneau convinced the college to purchase 10% of the energy used in dorms from renewable sources in return for a 5% reduction in student energy use. The victory came after a month-long conservation inter-dorm challenge where students competed to reduce their energy use.


Portland Community College- 4 campuses
During the 2006-2007 academic year, Portland Community College students worked on Transform Transportation, a campaign to get the Administration to commit to doubling the frequency of their intercampus shuttle and fueling them on a mixture of 20% Biodiesel.� These campaign goals were chosen as tangible and real first step toward reducing the carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption of this 90,000 member commuter-campus community.� By hosting a multitude of action oriented educational events, which focused on involving other clubs and groups on campus, a broad base of support and understanding was generated for the underlying principles of the campaign.� In addition to students, strong allies and advocates were found in the staff, faculty, and student government.� Throughout the year complete carbon emission and waste audits were conducted at Portland Community College, the student government created paid Student Senator for Environmental Sustainability positions at the three largest campuses, the community leveraged the district president to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and a commitment was made to implement the goals of Transform Transportation!�

Reed College � 2 victories
The students at Reed College in Portland, OR achieved two Challenge victories during the 2006-2007 school year: they worked with the school to purchase 1000 compact fluorescent light bulbs that will be used in college apartments, language houses, and an on-campus dorm; and they secured a commitment from the administration that the four new dorms being built on campus will be LEED certified. There were several students involved with both of these successes, but the main SSC contact at Reed is graduating senior Christine Lewis, a long-time SSC leader. Christine helps to run the Green Board, a non-hierarchical group of environmentally concerned Reed students that works on issues like energy efficiency, composting, and general sustainability at Reed. For next steps, the Green Board will work to convince the administration that the LEED certification they committed to should be silver level or higher. They will also continue their work around transportation on Reed�s campus and in Portland � the college has been named as a possible hub for the Portland-wide bike rental program that is being established, and the Green Board students want to ensure that this happens.�

St. Lawrence University � 2 victories�
Nigel Fellman Greene and the students of SLU's Coalition on Climate Change (C3) and Environmental Action Organization (EAO) secured 2 victories this year: they got their President to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and convinced the student government to pledge $5000 to make their Student Center run on green energy!� What�s more, the University President and board of trustees was so affected by their campaigning, that they pledged enough money to make half of the campus� new science center run off of green energy, as well.� You can read about these clean energy victories�here. Throughout the semester, C3 also worked to maintain SLU�s Green Pages, an online resource for the campus community.��

Swarthmore College � 1 victory
Led by Rachel Ackoff and Sasha Shahidi, Swarthmore students rallied this year to increase the wind purchase at Swarthmore to 35% of its total electricity usage. This was the latest in a 10-year push for renewable energy at Swarthmore and was achieved through focused student pressure on the President and other administrators and allies. The students organized big events including a rally and press conference to bring attention the issue and promote the campaign and the victory.

University of Arkansas � 1 victory
Led by Derek Linn, the UA SSC is pushing their university become the most climate friendly school in the south. At �Wintergreen� the UA SSC sponsored a sustainability awareness and action day. With the support of half a dozen student groups, the event included concerts, discussions and presentations on the effects of global warming. Students for Environmental Sustainability met with school officials and before a month passed, Chancellor John White signed the ACUPCC and made the University of Arkansas the first in the state to commit to climate neutrality.

University of Nevada � Las Vegas � 1 victory�
Thanks to the efforts of Melissa Mezger and the SSC at UNLV, the campus will now have a sustainability coordinator.� The SSC at UNLV has engaged students and the campus administration in discussions about climate change since the group was formed in the spring of 2006.� Throughout the spring of 2007, the SSC collected hundreds of petition signatures encouraging their president to sign the ACUPCC.� While the president hasn�t said yes yet, he did agree hire Mary Elizabeth, the SSC�s policy coordinator, as a sustainability coordinator for the summer, with the intention of bringing on a full-time staff person in the fall.� This puts the UNLV one step closer to securing a climate neutrality commitment from the school!

University of Washington-Seattle � 1 victory
In March 2007, the president of the University of Washington-Seattle signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) after receiving targeted pressure from a coalition of students at the University of Washington . SSC campus organizer and national leader Christina Billingsley helped to form and lead this coalition of on-campus groups alongside WASHPIRG leader Tina Utter. The coalition included representatives from the UW SSC, WASHPIRG, SEED (the residence hall environmental group), the Young Democrats, Amnesty International, and others. Christina and Tina formed this coalition to build the strength of the climate movement on their campus early in the spring semester of 2007. To convince the president to sign the ACUPCC, coalition students ran an intensive two-week campaign that included media work and the collection of more than 300 petitions from students on campus. The University President cited the students� work as the reason he chose to sign the commitment in March, saying that while he had been considering it their efforts pushed him to act. Their strategy was to pressure the president while also creating a �hero opportunity� for him, and it worked!

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse � 1 victory
At the University of Wisconsin � La Crosse , staff in three on-campus dorms agreed to turn off the computers in the dorm computer labs when they shut down for the night. The primary students involved in this campaign were Carrie Wisinski, an SSC Building Environmental Campus Communities Fellow in the fall of 2006, and her fellow group-members. To convince their administration to take this step, Carrie and the Challenge students held several creative events, including a �Phantom Biker� week, a screening of An Inconvenient Truth, and a petition bearing the slogan �Green Up, Power Down!�

Washington University in St. Louis � 2 victories
The Committee on Environmental Quality at Wash U, led by Erin Robinson, convinced the school catering service to switch from plastic to cardboard containers. As a result, the food service company has also begun to examine the entire carbon footprint of their food services, and have begun to reduce that footprint by buying more local foods and avoiding foods that must be shipped long distances. In general, the CEQ coordinates meetings of students, faculty and staff working on projects to conserve energy, reduce waste, improve recycling, and make campus construction more efficient. They hosted St. Louis � Step It Up event as well as a film festival and other large events to promote sustainability. The university has also committed to all new buildings being LEED certified, and they are aiming for Platinum certification for one building in particular. The students are currently working on getting a 20% biofuel blend approved for campus, which would not require any changes to the current infrastructure to implement. The next step the want to pursue is leveraging the University's electricity use to push the local utility to increase its renewable energy production � Wash U is currently the largest consumer of electricity from that utility.

Whitman College � 1 victory
In December 2006, the Campus Climate Challenge group at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA convinced the school to establish and support an alternative energy gift fund that will allow alumni, faculty, parents, and students to purchase renewable energy for their loved ones at Whitman. The college�s Office of Development initiated and sponsored announcements that went out by mail and email to all alumni since 1958, and also to parents, faculty and staff. The fund has been very successful and has already grown to $12,000 just through individual donations. The students primarily involved in this effort were Juliana Williams, the leader of the Campus Climate Challenge group at Whitman, and Brittany Smith who headed up the alternative gift fund project group. At the same time that Brittany and other students were negotiating with the Office of Development, the Challenge students were holding a large number of events on campus, including hosting several speakers, screening films like �An Inconvenient Truth,� �Being Caribou,� and �Who Killed the Electric Car,� collecting a petition asking the college to go climate-neutral, and holding a �Do It In The Dark� party that drew 300 people (an impressive number anywhere, but especially at a 1400-student college!). They created so much on-campus buzz and momentum that they were able to pass several initiatives in their first semester, including this victory. Now, the Challenge group at Whitman is working to get their college�s president to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

Williams College � 1 victory
Williams College committed to reducing emissions 10% below 1990-91 levels by 2020. Led by Morgan Goodwin, students held outreach, awareness and education events, lobbied the administration and earned media. Their next steps are to ensure accountability of current goals and to develop a campaign with stronger short-term and long-term asks.

Winona State University � 2 victories
Winona State's president signed the ACUPCC in February 2007. Students working on other sustainability projects on campus had enlisted the support of the faculty senate, which became a strong proponent of reducing the school's greenhouse gas emissions. Working on their own, the faculty senate forwarded the Commitment to the president asking for her signature. A couple days later, the student group at Winona sent the president a letter with the same request, not knowing the faculty had done the same thing. The president signed it soon after. Winona State also approved a plan to power the campus bus with biodiesel. The students, led by Callie Runestad, began by drafting a detailed proposal, and they were assisted by an engineering student who was writing a thesis on biodiesel and by a professor who is very interested in the subject. They made the feasibility and the positive impact of the project clear. They then informed students about the proposal through tabling, met with facilities management to gain their approval, and asked the faculty senate and student government to support their proposal. The only resistance they met was in the feasibility of its implementation, and when they were able to answer those questions, their proposal was approved with support from facilities, faculty, student government, and the president.

To add or update a victory, please contact Eliza Simon, National Campaign Coordinator, at eliza@ssc.org

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