With National Campus Sustainability Day coming up on Wednesday, Oct. 22, senior Karlis Rokpelnis, Whitman’s new Campus Sustainability Coordinator, is busy.   The Board of Trustees approved the creation and funding of the sustainability coordinator last February to align Whitman’s actions closer towards its environmental principles.   The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) lists the campus sustainability position among its recommendations for colleges that want to go green.

“I’m a liaison between faculty, staff and students,” said Rokpelnis.

Working under Jed Schwendiman, the associate to President George Bridges and the chair of the Conservation Committee, Rokpelnis constantly shuttles between meetings.   Usually, these meetings involve environmentally-minded organizations on campus, including Campus Greens, its offshoot Campus Climate Challenge, the organic garden, the Outhouse and the Conservation Committee (full disclosure: this reporter is a member of Campus Climate Challenge).

Incidentally, Rokpelnis is the president of Campus Greens.   So far, however, there has been no conflict of interest between his role as a student activist and as a part-time staff member.   He is also the administrator of Whitman’s new $100,000 Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund.

Student-led environmental activism at Whitman involves not only spreading awareness, which can be done without the support of faculty and staff, but also concrete changes in policy.   This is where Rokpelnis comes in.   He serves to facilitate communication between students who, for example, want to raise money for solar panels on Jewett, and staff members who can make that happen.

One of the problems student activists face is the lack of institutional memory, because students graduate and pursue other activities, so it is difficult to pass on the knowledge of various environmental projects.

“Currently, I’m working with [junior] Tyler Harvey to try establishing a better institutional memory,” said Rokpelnis.

The Campus Coordinator Position ironically is a result of student activism.   Savanna Ferguson, a 2006 alumna and one of Whitman’s former geology technicians, started lobbying the administration in 2006 to create the sustainability coordinator position.

“A permanent Environmental Coordinator would enhance the visibility of the College’s commitment to the environment and benefits for student recruitment, public relations, and fund raising would follow,” said a proposal Ferguson wrote in 2006 to ASWC’s student budget committee.

The position Ferguson lobbied for and Rokpelnis’ job today are not the same.   Ferguson originally lobbied for a full-time position that would be paid $30,000 to $80,000 annually, but the sustainability coordinator is only a part-time job that pays significantly less.   It is funded out of the operating budget and not ASWC.

Rokpelnis works “officially 10 [hours a week, but] practically more.”

Working with Campus Climate Challenge, Ferguson compromised with the administration to make the sustainability position part-time.

“What I believe the administration has set up is a starting place to see if they think the position is worth implementing as a full-time, salaried staff position,” said Ferguson.

Part of the reason why the position is not full-time is that it is very hard to fund staff positions because donors are more interested in funding programs or scholarships, even though staff positions are critical for Whitman to meet its goals.

Rokpelnis has office hours in Memorial 304 every Monday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.