AT ISSUE
Should College Campuses Go Green?
In recent years, more and more American colleges and universities have become “green campuses,” emphasizing sustainability —the use of systems and materials that will not deplete the earth’s natural resources. Various schools have taken steps such as the following:
Placing an emphasis on recycling and reducing nonbiodegradable waste
Creating green buildings and using eco-friendly materials in construction projects
Instituting new curricula in environmental science
Monitoring their greenhouse gas emissions and evaluating their carbon footprint
Growing crops on campus to feed students
Hiring full-time “sustainability directors”
Encouraging students to use bikes instead of cars
Purchasing wind-generated electricity to supply the campus’s energy
Eliminating trays in college cafeterias
Although many schools have launched ambitious programs and projects to reduce their energy dependence, some have been more cautious, citing the high cost of such programs and the need to allocate resources elsewhere. Moreover, some critics of the green movement object to the notion that colleges should help to make students “sustainability literate.” Such critics consider the green movement to be an expression of political correctness that at best does no more than pay lip service to the problem and at worst threatens academic freedom by furthering a political agenda.
The question remains whether the green movement that is spreading rapidly across college campuses is here to stay or just a fad—or something between these two extremes. This chapter takes you through the process of writing an argumentative essay on the topic of whether college campuses should go green. (Exercises guide you through the process of writing your own argumentative essay on a topic of your choice.)
