Wyatt Smith
News Editor
In light of the upcoming departure of Sb Loder, the College’s sustainability coordinator, a group of students and faculty are working to ensure that her position continues. Wooster’s sustainability coordinator, a post created by Loder two years ago, is in charge of organizing and promoting sustainability initiatives on campus.
The administration is hesitant to hire another sustainability coordinator.
“We have not yet decided how to address the questions of coordination and leadership of our sustainability efforts,” said Deanna McCormick, vice president for finance and business. “We are constantly concerned about cost and are working very hard to reduce the number of administrative staff positions at the College, with a vigilant eye focused on the core academic mission. Every vacant position begs the question about possible realignment of responsibilities.”
Some members of the campus community, however, believe having a sustainability coordinator is important for the school.
“At a large, complex institution such as ours where lots of different departments and positions interface with sustainability but none of them is charged with it completely, these steps require a person in charge,” said Matthew Mariola, assistant professor of environmental studies. “The goal of sustainability is too complex and reaches into too many different aspects of the College’s functioning to simply be left up to people’s goodwill. That would be like having a large academic department but not having an administrative coordinator.”
“Look at other colleges, the ones that value and act on sustainability are the ones with sustainability departments,” said Loder. “They do education, events, publicity; they initiate and perpetuate the conversation about sustainability on campus.”
“When it comes down to the wire, I know that the College will choose what is best for everybody: hiring another sustainability coordinator,” said Rita Frost ’14, an environmental studies minor who is heavily involved with environmental activism on campus. “I think this as it has been so paramount to a great deal of success for the last two years.”
During a meeting of Greenhouse, the environmental sustainability student group on campus, a group of students created an action plan to convince the administration to hire another sustainability coordinator. They hope to arrange a meeting with McCormick to voice their concerns. The students also came up with a list of faculty and staff who worked closely with Loder and asked them to talk to McCormick about the importance of the position.
Many believe that the role of sustainability coordinator should be expanded, not just continued. For instance, moving the position higher up the administrative hierarchy — from an hourly wage grounds employee to a salaried member of the business office.
“I would love if they hired someone with the intention of making a sustainability plan, making some sustainability commitments and someone who’s qualified to not only write that kind of stuff but see it through,” said Loder. “To write the plan, to write the proposals and be part of the greater dialogue about campus.”
“The main thing I’d like to see is simply that the sustainability coordinator be given more power and be given the funding to make things happen on campus,” said Mariola. “However, if you give the sustainability coordinator power and funding, you should also give them a mandate to make themselves ‘cost-neutral’ — in other words, if they spend money on a project, it should come back to the College in the form of increased efficiencies.”
There is disagreement on whether the sustainability coordinator should continue to be a recent Wooster graduate or instead be an experienced professional.
“If you already know them and people trust your face, then they’re going to want to talk to you more, they’re going to want to have you there,” said Frost.
“If the sustainability coordinator is very young and very hip, so to say, … they’d probably do a good job interacting with students and going to student group meetings,” said Kelsey Schreck ’15, president of Greenhouse and co-president of the Organic Farming Program, “but they might not be able to have a professional peer relationship with deans and the director of grounds. That wouldn’t be good. Ideally the sustainability coordinator would be able to have an … advisor-advisee relationship with students but also a peer relationship with faculty and the administration.”
Loder created the sustainability coordinator position two years ago when she presented a list of possible environmental initiatives to members of the administration. Encouraged by Director of Grounds Beau Mastrine, the president’s cabinet approved the new position.
“Sb did a phenomenal job in the coordinator’s position,” said McCormick. “She was strategic, practical and very effective in changing many practices and policies across campus. I regret she is leaving.”
Having accomplished most of her original objectives, Loder recently decided it was time to leave Wooster. “Personally, professionally, it all just comes together,” she said. “It’s time to go.”
Environmental student leaders are concerned that with summer fast approaching, time to hire a new sustainability coordinator is running out.
“We’re worried that without significant student input, they won’t hire a new person,” said Schreck. “We want students in the environmental groups on campus to have input on who is awarded this position because we’ll be working in such close relation with them.”
“I think sustainability is more important to the College than they realize,” added Frost. “If they did start approaching all their relations in a sustainable manner, then it would be better for everybody.”