The last four years have seen student activism converge with administrative support to transform Duke into a greener university. From the Environmental Alliance's biodiesel campaign to the University's current Green Dining Initiative, Duke has finally made an effort to join its peer institutions as a leader in environmental sustainability.
At a time of unprecedented growth, however, students and administrators cannot afford to rest on their laurels for hard-fought-though somewhat isolated-gains. The next logical step in promoting a progressive environmental framework at Duke is to institutionalize sustainability campuswide. It will be up to students to pressure Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, Vice President of Campus Services Kemel Dawkins and President Brodhead to make such an ambitious-and critical-initiative a reality.
An easy place to start is with E-print. Unlike our peer institutions, such as UNC, Duke's OIT computer clusters print single-sided as the default setting. When OIT introduced E-print in 2003, it was heralded as a means of reducing paper waste. Jen Vizas, manager of Academic Technology Services, said at the time that paper consumption grew by only 9 percent after OIT introduced the new system.
To say that E-print has fulfilled its potential by reducing a rise in consumption, however, is a bit like saying we can reverse global warming if the U.S. slows its annual growth of greenhouse gas emissions.
EA is currently petitioning OIT to make double-sided printing the default setting in all OIT computer clusters, a common-sense initiative that would make a real difference in reducing Duke students' voracious paper consumption. So far, the campaign has received overwhelming student support-many students have even expressed frustration with OIT's failure to provide information on how to duplex print with the current system. Aside from its obvious environmental benefits, duplex printing would also save the University money. Duke's OIT clusters plowed through 3,000,000 sheets of paper in 2003, which cost the University $12,000.
Most importantly this year, Duke's commitment to sustainability will be severely tested by its decision of whether to renew ARAMARK, Corp.'s food service contract. Over the past year, students, faculty, food contractors and administrators have worked together through the Green Dining Committee, EA and the Duke University Greening Initiative to bring fresh, local and sustainable dining options to campus.
The Refectory, Nasher Café and Mad Hatter's are manifestations of growing campus-wide pressure to both improve the quality of food offered to Duke students and faculty and to support ingredients that are environmentally friendly. This means, for example, eating beef from free-range, grass-fed cows at Maple View Farms served at The Refectory, rather than the reprocessed steak from God-knows-what factory farm at ARAMARK's Marketplace or Great Hall.
As residents of Duke, we have a right to demand that our merchants purchase products that are fresh and local and that we know where they come from. Other universities, such as Yale, Harvard and Middlebury, have already taken the lead in promoting higher-quality foods at competitive prices. Yale's sustainable dining program features meals made from local, seasonal and sustainably grown food. Not coincidentally, the colleges (Yale's version of dorms or quads) with these offerings are the most popular dining locations among students.
Duke's new Green Dining Initiative-which seeks to reduce waste, promote more locally grown foods and encourage conservation in a variety of ways-has great leadership with head of Duke Dining, Jim Wulforst, Barbara Stokes, Sam Hummel and the entire Green Dining Committee. But the program will only be a success if Duke chooses vendors with a similar commitment to quality and sustainability.
An incredible opportunity is before Duke to replace ARAMARK with a vendor less concerned with corporate profits and more attuned to environmentally responsible dining. If Trask and Dawkins are truly committed to promoting environmental sustainability, they will pro-actively push for a new merchant that puts food quality, students' demands and the environment before politics and corporate largesse. Incidentally, the former three criteria are complementary.
Most importantly, as Duke students, we must realize that the future of sustainability at Duke is in our hands. If we want to reduce paper consumption and bring better food to campus, it is up to us to push for it. We are fortunate to have administrators like Wulforst who consistently open their ears to student feedback and ideas. We just need to give them something to listen to.
Jared Fish is a Trinity senior and a member of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee, the Environmental Alliance and the Green Dining Committee. His column runs every other Thursday.
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