letter to village voice- i don't believe it was published

4/24/2008

Dear Editor,

In the past few years many institutions have felt the need to “go green” merely to appease the public, as waste is not an attribute that should be connected to an educated environment. However, students of NYU and I have found it necessary to act and demonstrate support as opposed to simply using the rhetoric of good practice. Although it is difficult to mobilize any small activity at a University as large as NYU, we created a campaign for Earth Day, titled Blackout NYU, intended to spark activism on campus and show the New York community that although we are young, we are not necessarily apathetic or complacent to issues confronting our world.
Political Journalism and Activism is a course offered by Gallatin School of Individualized Study that promotes the intersection of theory based and practice oriented work. As a class of fourteen, led by the Professor Kathy Engel, we tried to create a publicized campaign that would make the community focus on their energy consumption. Our ‘Blackout Squad’ ran classroom to classroom starting Tuesday morning, asking professors and students to turn off their classroom lights as a way of reinforcing NYU’s message of conservation. Surprisingly, a few professors gave us a hard time; one simply stated, “Go back to Gallatin,” in reference to the school’s liberal mantra. Generally speaking, the students themselves supported recognizing Earth Day and the symbol of their involvement.
In conjunction to that effort, we also engaged passers-by, in Washington Square Park, to reduce their carbon footprint. Participants were literally asked to draw a footprint in chalk and pledge a yearlong contribution/reduction. Most NYU students were open to this experience of creatively and consciously thinking about their individual greening efforts.
Overall, our group found that the students themselves are not as apathetic as the reputation that precedes us. Although we are a far cry from our parent’s anti-Vietnam War generation, we can politically organize just as efficiently. Our efforts were coordinated, almost exclusively, via the virtual arenas of email, blogging, telephone and radio interviews. My hope is that the Village, and the nation for that matter, becomes less accustomed to seeing college students as indifferent or unconcerned about political issues. Part of our challenge is to actually organize and implement the strategies or ideas that we think of and discuss on a daily basis. Another key to this is having faculty and our bureaucracy supporting the student’s voice.


Regards,
Judy Joslow