Last Friday, February 15th, the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) had a major victory in their campaign for a comprehensive University System-wide policy of carbon neutrality. After many months of hard work the MSCC, a coalition of students from 8 of the institutions in the University System of Maryland (USM), presented more than 11,000 petition signatures to the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents. That’s right, 11,000 signatures! That means that almost 10% of the student body in the entire university system signed on in support of this policy! Continue reading
Md. Student Climate Coalition holds state-wide Day of Action
On December 5th and 6th students across the University System of Maryland took action on climate change. Undaunted by the first snow of the season, students across the state rallied in a series of creative actions for clean energy.
The day of action was organized by the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC). A coalition of student groups from across the University System of Maryland (USM) who have united in a campaign to get the entire university system to adopt a comprehensive carbon neutrality policy. This policy includes using basic energy efficiency technology, clean energy purchasing, improving mass transit, and integrating sustainability into the curriculum. The students are gathering 13,000 signatures across the state to present to the Board of Regents on February 15th and urge them to pass the policy. Their efforts have already made headway with recognition on the USM’s website. The Maryland Student Climate Coalition’s campaign slogan is: “Invest in our Future: Make Carbon Neutrality a Maryland Reality.”
The headline actions occurred at Towson University and the University of Maryland College Park. The campus group, Towson Energy Activists creatively dressed in costumes and staged a mock fight between a smokestack (to represent the dirty fossil fuels of the past) and a wind turbine (symbolizing the clean technology of the future.) The wind turbine won! The event also had a special unveiling of Captain Climate, a new generation super hero sent to our planet to solve the climate crisis. Through their exceptional press work they garnished media coverage from The DC Examiner, the 501, and the Towson Towerlight.
Another highlight event was at the USM flagship institution, University of Maryland College Park. The group UMD for Clean Energy held a big “Green Out!” day in which they got hundreds of students across campus to wear green to show their support for clean energy. They also got dozens of students to volunteer to gather signatures for the USM carbon neutrality petition. They got 700 signatures in a single day! This brings them just 118 signatures shy of their semester goal of 5,005, which they expect to easily reach the final week of school. The culminating event of the “Green Out” was when dozens of students convened on the main campus lawn for a big clean energy rally. Against the backdrop of a field of 6 foot scale homemade wind turbines they cheered, beat drums, and listened to speeches from student leaders and student body president, Andrew Freidson. The event also drew campus and local media attention from the Prince George County Gazette, Prince George’s County Sentinel and the Diamondback newspapers.
Other coordinated actions occurred at Salisbury University, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Baltimore, Frostburg State University, and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The Maryland Student Climate Coalition’s Day of Action was a great success, by capping off an active semester on their campaign for system wide carbon neutrality.
To support the MSCC and their campaign you can sign the petition here or by joining the facebook group “Support the MSCC”.
Join the National Campus Energy Challenge!
(co-written by Claire Schuch)
Thirty people from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota attended Power Shift. 1,770 Mac students did not. Not to mention faculty and staff. Thirty people from the Mac community came back energized, inspired, and well-connected. But what about everyone else? I bet it was the same story for your campus Continue reading
The birth of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition!
Last year students in Maryland won significant clean energy victories at their universities as part of the first year of the Campus Climate Challenge. However, with all of their successes on their individual campuses the students were hitting some road blocks with institutional policy for the entire University System of Maryland (USM). So, empowered by their past victories they had a great idea: why not get all of the USM schools to band together in one big grassroots coalition and push for one big comprehensive policy? It just seemed crazy enough to work.
So, on October 5th-7th these students planned the first ever USM Student State Summit to address the climate crisis. Students from across Maryland converged at Towson University for this big event. Over 30 students from 8 of the 11 USM institutions came together to hold activist skills trainings, strategize, and plan their campaign.
All of their labor paid off when on Saturday October 6th at 8:48PM the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) was born! From the very start the MSCC has some ambitious goals and they are asking the state of Maryland to rise to the challenge. Their inaugural campaign is to make the entire University System of Maryland carbon neutral. Which means they want to neutralize the USM’s impact on climate change by reducing all possible emissions through energy efficiency, LEED certified buildings, and have all remaining energy use provided by clean energy sources. Their catchy campaign slogan: “Invest in our future: Make carbon neutrality a Maryland reality” is already taking off.
To realize this impressive mission they have set ambitious goals to get all 15 institutions in the USM to send endorsement letters to the Board of Regents and collect a total of 13,000 petition signatures!
Their efforts are already gaining notoriety from the USM Chancellor Kirwin who said that he is “dazzled” by the dedication and coordination of the student campaign. On December 14th MSCC will make their big presentation to the Board of Regents to urge them to pass a policy for carbon neutrality. (The USM is the 13th largest university system in the world and if the policy passes it will be the second system in the nation, following California, to have such a comprehensive policy).
Last week, the Maryland Student Climate Coalition hit the ground running and launched their campaign in a joint press conference with the Sierra Club of Maryland. On an unnatural and blisteringly hot October day they gathered in Federal Hill Park in Baltimore and unveiled their newly formed coalition to the press and the public. Read the coverage in the Baltimore Examiner and the Baltimore Sun Blog. Congratulations MSCC!