James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison Magazine - Summer 2009 - Index

THE RISE OF A NEW
AMERICA
New Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World challenges
JMU community to embrace sustainable change
BY MICHELLE HITE (’88)
For a century Madison has educated students
to be enlightened and engaged citizens, problem solvers —
community leaders. Now through the coordinated efforts of
professors and administrators, and a charge from JMU President
Linwood H. Rose, the university
is training students to be global citizens
— stewards of planet Earth.
In September, Rose announced the
university’s formation of the Institute
for Stewardship of the Natural World
to guide JMU’s efforts to become a
more environmentally responsible
operation as well as to educate JMU citizens about their
relationship to nature.
It wasn’t a hard sell on this campus. For decades, JMU
professors and staff members have built a recycling program.
They have collaborated on alternative fuel research;
they have tackled environmental issues and built a new
engineering program that focuses on sustainability.
Students also have embraced the new institute and its
principles. From coordinating campus No Drive Days to
composting in their own eco-friendly residence hall to competing
with other residence halls to use the least amount of
electricity and water, JMU students
are leading the charge to live a more
sustainable lifestlye.
According to Christie-Joy “C.J.”
Brodrick Hartman, director of the
Institute for Stewardship of the Natural
World, the focus on sustainability
and stewardship is not advocating
current green trends. The importance of President Rose’s
charge and this institute is education and changing culture
— researching even more alternative energy resources and
their environmental impact, changing individual behaviors,
focusing on environmental literacy, studying economic and
social systems that affect the environment, and training students
to find innovative solutions — it is about sustainable change. M
26 MADISON MAGAZINE FLAG BY ANN CUTTING/VEER; QUAD PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM COGILL