--- Update 10/18/22 ---

On Earth Day, President Assanis announced the University of Delaware's commitment to establish an Office of Sustainability and the Environment “with a goal of having this in place by the start of the new academic year.” 

But now, nearly two months after Assanis’ stated goal, the office has still yet to be established. On careers.udel.edu, no positions for an office of sustainability have even been listed yet as of this writing. Meanwhile, UD saw an $8.6 million increase in its oil and gas investments from 2020 to 2021. A look at UD's past history on sustainability further highlights the need for action:

• As UD’s own Sustainability Council mentions in The University of Delaware Sustainability Plan, UD scored a mere 32.8% in its 2020 report to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) — and one of the major reasons is that it lacks a sustainability office. While nearly all of our peer institutions such as University of Maryland and University of Virginia have an Office of Sustainability, UD does not.
• UD already has had a long history of delaying on its sustainability commitments. Eight years ago, another petition for then-President Harker to establish an office gained over 700 signatures, and the recommendation of a sustainability office was included in UD’s “Delaware Will Shine Plan” that year. There has been some progress since then, such as the hiring of UD’s first sustainability manager Michelle Bennet in 2015, but the full office has still never really materialized. Despite establishing a Sustainability Council in 2020, UD also removed Bennet from her position citing budgetary concerns, leaving the mostly unpaid council members on their own to create an updated UD sustainability plan, with the central recommendation from the council being the establishment of a Vice President-level Office of Sustainability.

Sign the petition: UD needs to follow through on its commitment and establish a Vice President-level Office of Sustainability.

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The University of Delaware was ranked last among comparable universities regarding its sustainability efforts, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). In order to address environmental issues both on campus and beyond, a Sustainability Office needs to be established. The establishment of a Sustainability Office, a Vice President-level office, has been identified as a nonnegotiable first step towards real sustainability by the UD Sustainability Council. In addition to serving as a centralized source for the coordination of campus-wide sustainability initiatives, a Sustainability Office would also:

• Provide official, administrative support to select student and faculty sustainability initiatives
• Implement improvements to existing campus infrastructure (e.g. more efficient lighting systems, less waste in dining halls, recycling, etc.)
• Improve and expand environmentally-related curriculum
• Coordinate with both the city of Newark and the state of DE for larger scale sustainable actions
• Support select undergraduate, graduate, and faculty academic research being conducted within fields related to environmental sustainability, conservation, and protection
• Promote environmental justice through equity and inclusion initiatives.

The administration is hesitant to invest in this office due budgetary concerns, and individuals working with the administration to implement a sustainability office have indicated that the administration, without even conducting a student poll, has decided to drop the issue from the Board of Trustees’ review, claiming a lack of student consensus. Despite being the centerpiece of UD’s Sustainability Plan, an office of sustainability was not included in the April 2022 budget proposal.

Sign the petition: since UD’s recent budget proposal did not include an office of sustainability in this year’s budget proposal, the President’s Office should issue a statement of intent pledging to include it in next year’s budget proposal.

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If you would like to sign your organization onto this petition, fill out this form (non-UD organizations should fill out this form).