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April 4, 2003
Green Fund Helping to Extend Environmental
Initiatives to AlumniOne of the most exciting Green Strides to come out of January’s Green
Summit is now taking form in the development office. The creation of a
‘Green Fund’ is being headed by Director of Major Gifts Karl Clauss,
and is making an environmentally-friendly splash with an important part
of the Colgate community- the alumni body.
Colgate alumni have the opportunity
to give to several special funds when donating to the University. This
semester, a ‘Green Fund’ has been added to this list. The fund will
be advertised as a way to ensure that the donations interested alumni give will
go to the cause of improving the environmental health of the campus. Materials
will be sent out to possible interested alumni, such as past environmental
studies majors. “We really like alumni to give to something that they
have a personal interest in,” says Mr. Clauss. Clauss not only sees this
as a great cause, but also as a way to increase the level of participation among
alumni donors.
Donations to the Green Fund will be used on projects
that increase the environmental initiatives on Colgate’s campus. Early
ideas for possible projects include the purchase of vending misers, which cut
down on the amount of energy used by vending machines. Mr. Clauss intends to
work closely with Molly Baker, co-director of Outdoor Education to generate
ideas for future projects.
Another important aspect of the Green Fund
is that it is directly tied to the
mission statement of the Green Summit,
and therefore has the potential to help make more Green Strides a reality with
donor funds. In this way, the Green Fund is a way to promote the initiatives,
successes, and ideals of January’s summit meeting. The collaboration of
those students, faculty and staff will be called for in the future steps of
Green Fund implementation, in order to generate new ideas for projects. The
Green Fund has the potential to bring the mission statement of the Green Summit
to an extended part of the Colgate community, and as Mr. Clauss comments,
“Setting up the fund was the easy part. Now we have to make sure that the
information is out there. This is a great cause.”
Green
Summit Mission Statement:
Colgate University and
members of its community recognize not only the need to engage in dialogue about
our environmental future, but more importantly our responsibility to take active
steps towards improving it. Through Green Strides, an ongoing, University-wide
effort, Colgate is committed to promoting environmental citizenship and reducing
its environmental impact. To this end, students, faculty, staff and
administrators have created a shared vision for the environmental future of
Colgate – the Green Print, a dynamic document of initiatives adaptive to
both current and future environmental concerns of the University.
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