Letter

To the Editor:

Curiously, none of the articles in the Special Issue on Sustainability (Spring 2010, vol. 23, no. 1) found any studies of whether the continual “sustainability” hectoring on campus has any effect. Do students turn off lights when leaving a room? Do they produce less trash and recycle more?

This is evidence that the “sustainability” movement has little to do with the uncontroversial goal of reducing waste. At the same time that administrations continually blather about “sustainability” they illuminate their campuses and buildings with bright lights that cannot be turned off (when I began to turn off excessive lights in my department at night, an electrician removed the switch), and build fancy parking structures so that no student should walk, bicycle or ride public transportation to campus, etc.

If “sustainability” isn’t really about reducing waste and pollution, then