On July 29, 2020, 47 student organizations at Purdue University, representing over 8,000 students, gave the President of Purdue University a letter asking that the university commit to carbon neutrality. In addition, as of July 29 over 1,800 individuals signed a similar letter. Read the full letter sent to the Purdue President below.
29 July 2020
Dear President Daniels,
We are writing this letter today representing over 8000 Purdue students 1 across 60 student organizations, and with widespread state-wide support, to urge you to engage with large-scale climate action planning efforts in partnership with Tippecanoe County and the Cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette. The support and commitment from the university, as a significant part of our Greater West Lafayette community, is vital as local governments work to develop a Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for all of Tippecanoe County with the three local jurisdictions. This is an opportunity for Purdue to take its Next Giant Leap forward and become a leader among institutions of higher education not only in affordability, transformative education, entrepreneurship, world-changing research, online education, and STEM leadership, but climate action as well.
In recent months, we have seen Purdue pave the way for public universities in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now time that Purdue responds to another global crisis, climate change, which is just as much a quality of life and racial equality issue as it is environmental. Purdue has taken steps to go green by LEED certifying new buildings that meet a certain cost; however, the university can build on these policies by committing to curb net carbon emissions 100% by 2030. Purdue can ensure the completion of this plan by creating a campus-wide sustainability office, composed of researchers, faculty, students, economists, and other relevant personnel that is appropriately funded, staffed, and involved with administrative and budgetary decision-making. While we do not have the resources or skills to complete Purdue’s plan by ourselves as students, the plans of many institutions are public at SecondNature.org, and we would be happy to collaborate with this new sustainability office to adapt these plans to Purdue. Climate change is a multifaceted issue that must receive the amount of attention devoted to other prevalent socioeconomic concerns in the Office of the Provost, like student life and diversity. This on-campus office will tackle campus sustainability better than the current, understaffed office that is limited to facilities. Additionally, while carbon neutrality does not require an immediate transition away from fossil fuels, we believe creating a long-term, enforceable plan on fossil fuel divestment is crucial in the prevention of future economic distress from the dependence on non-renewable energy sources. Many universities 2 , including Big Ten schools; companies 3 , including major energy-using industries 4 ; and cities 5 are moving towards carbon neutrality because they see that taking preventative action now circumvents taking drastic actions in the future 6 . The financial benefits of pursuing carbon neutrality are visible in schools such as Ball State, who now saves more than $2M in energy costs per year, as well as other schools such as The Ohio State University, which maintains frozen tuition. At Purdue, financial gains can go towards spearheading the university’s other missions of achieving world-class academics, diversity, entrepreneurship, and student wellness. Achieving complete carbon neutrality by 2030 is realistic and pays significant dividends.
The time to commit to carbon neutrality is now. Our local community has committed to climate action with the support of Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute and Purdue’s Climate Change Research Center, and as a result, they are propelling themselves toward a more sustainable, just future for all. Purdue has a responsibility to follow the will of the student body by joining these efforts to build a better world for its students. The generations of the future will greatly appreciate the leaders of today who took action and remember those who did not. Let this be the moment that future generations observe as the day Purdue took its biggest leap of all. They will see this milestone in the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall’s Purdue History Timeline. Purdue students, the leaders of tomorrow, are relying on you. We urge the Purdue administration to take the Next Giant Leap and leave the planet better than we received it, together ─ one brick higher.
Best,
Mason Merkel, Madison Hodges, Amy Worley-Peterson, Rachel Cotner, Holly Curry, Annabel Prokopy,
Ethan Bledsoe, Iris O’Donnell Bellisario
West Lafayette Students for Climate Action
And from the following Purdue Student Organizations:
Frances Kelly
President, Student Sustainability Council
Sage Smith
President, Purdue College Republicans
Daniel Farrell
President, Purdue College Democrats
Brian Tedeschi
President, Residence Hall Association
Karen Hubbard
President, Purdue American Association of University Women
Executive Board
Asian Student Union Board
Shreeja Shrestha
President, Multicultural Greek Council
Liam Bettez
President, Purdue Interfraternity Council
Taylor Doehrman
President, Purdue Cooperative Council
Assata Gilmore
President, Purdue Student Government
Jonah Ross
President, Sunrise Movement Purdue
Isabelle Titus
President, Boiler Green Initiative
Annie Bingle
Directing Co-Chair, Purdue Rising Professionals
Thomas Frosch
President, Purdue Liberal Arts Student Council
Noor Abdullah
President, Purdue Timmy Global Health
Lumari Perez
President, Latinx Student Union
Katlyn Hansen
President, Purdue Relay for Life
Alice Pawley
Founder, Purdue Climate Strike
Angela Pan
President, Food Finders Food Bank Club
Jaclyn Frank
President, Purdue Period Project
Erica Wang
President, Society of Environmental and Ecological Engineers
YuXin Dong
President, Women in Physics
Megan McDuffie
President, Undergraduate Physics Student Council
Omar Tantawi
President, Environmental and Ecological Engineering Graduate Student Organization
Anna Adamsson, Liana Zogbi
Co-Leads, Solar Ambassadors of Purdue
Brooke Beliles
President, Engineers Without Borders
Nathan Gurgens
President, Purdue Space Program
Andrea Copeland, Kiara Smith
President, Vice President, STEMPOWER
Anna Adamsson
President, Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honors Society
Cici Waterman
President, Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society
Jiayu Luo
President, Hiking Club
Reed Hudson
President, Purdue Outing Club
Anna-Nikol Georgiev, Silenze Esquivel Benjamin
Vice President, Representative, SKY @ Purdue
Madison Draper
President, Dodge the Dark
Christina Core
President, National Society of Black Engineers
Kate Nicholl
Vice President, Society of Women Engineers
Bee Overbey
President, Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Graduate Student Council
Ashley King
President, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Enes Shaltami
President, Purdue Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Society
Elizabeth Bramer
President, Women in Nuclear
Jeremy Mateja
President, American Nuclear Society
Josh Fitch
President, Purdue Orbital
Antoine Minier
President, Krannert Net Impact
Derek Crane
President, Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority and Fraternity
Cayley Boumansour
President, Model United Nations
William Taylor
President, Baha’i Club
Amanda Shie
President, Chinese Culture Appreciation Club
And from the following Purdue Student Government Senators:
Alex Reed, Rajat Kadian
Senators, Krannert School of Management
Evan Kopp
Senator, College of Liberal Arts
Adithya Lyengar, David Hockenberry, Zachary McClary
Senators, College of Engineering
Mili Jha
Senator, Honors College
Saul Guzman, Evan Chrise
Senators, Exploratory Studies
Sammy Bonnet
Senator, College of Education
With support from the following community organizations:
Annabel Prokopy, Ethan Bledsoe
Representatives, West Lafayette Climate Strike
Chris Campbell
State Representative (D), Indiana 26th District (West Lafayette)
Gabriel Filipelli
Director, Center for Urban Health
Fathers Tom McDermott, Chris Saliga, Patrick Baikauskas, Deacon Dan Finn, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church
Tom McConville
Co-Chair, Social Justice at Unitarian Universalist Church, West Lafayette
Erin Moodie
Leader, Lafayette Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Tim Nation
Executive Director, Peace Learning Center
Jim Poyser
Executive Director, Earth Charter Indiana
Bowden Quinn
Director, Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
Ron Alting
State Senator (R), Indiana 22nd District (Tippecanoe County)
Kaitlyn Young
Co-Facilitator, Lafayette Climate
Barbara Clark, Deanna McMillan, Elizabeth Jones
Co-Executives, League of Women Voters - Greater Lafayette
Peter Bunder, Gerald Thomas, Shannon Kang, Larry Leverenz, Kathy Parker, James Blanco
President, Vice President, Elected Representatives,
West Lafayette City Council
Khloe Goodman
President, Harrison Students for Environmental Protection Club
Executive Board
Hoosier Interfaith Power and Light
1. The number should be much larger because of the student government signatures, but without every last college senator signing, the exact number for each college is unquantifiable; the number includes students from each organization and the petition thus far: https://www.carbonneutralindiana.org/purdue-university-carbon-neutral-petition
2. http://reporting.secondnature.org
3. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/3/5/21155020/companies-carbon-neutral-climate-positive
4. https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/sustainability/our-2030-commitments.html
6. https://environment.harvard.edu/news/faculty-news/how-think-about-costs-climate-change