Outraged by the comment made by Woody Studenmund!

I was extremely outraged by the comment that was made after Woody found out about the LEED memo we worked on.  To say right after he gets the memo that, "I would rather spend extra money on the greening of the outside of the dorm” is down right insulting for all the work that we put into in it. By saying what he did I feel that it was a waste of our time even working on it!  I feel that everyone in the school needs strive for the best possible situation for the school and I believe that obtaining the LEED certification will really push the school to make better decisions about the future of the environment around Oxy for years to come.  The LEED certification will give Oxy recognition far beyond anything the school has ever had. It will bring publicity about how Oxy is striving for environmental awareness.  But the question I pose is ... do you think it is possible that the school wanted to work toward the LEED Certification, but not go through with it because they don’t want to have to live up to those standards over the next 20 years or so?

Comments

[markvalli]

It's possible that Woddy's comments were based on my email summarizing the memo rather than a close read of the points in the memo itself. Let's hope seeing the arguments in the memo changed his mind... In terms of the long-term goals of the college, as of now the draft master plan commits to major new buildings being built at LEED silver level and training some OXY staff to be able to certify these buildings. We'll see if the trustees try to remove that commitment. This debate underscores how our advocacy on the new residence hall has a long term impact.

[Emily Cunningham]

I agree with jcharity about the unfairness of the memo response. Perhaps in high school, student's opinions could be ignored or overlooked, however, I feel that in college, we hold a higher place which demands a certain respect. This respect was literally pushed aside by Woody's comment about the memo. Considering that this class has specifically worked toward student support and awareness of the master plan, the response to the memo was completely out of line. We have done our research and studied many ways to improve our campus. For Woody to simply ignore our opinions about OUR OWN campus is frankly disappointing to me. For a college that pushes a strong community and democratic system, this comment does not live up to these standards.

[EricKorpie]

I am in agreement with Jared and Emily. I feel as though Woody's comments circumvented our efforts. I felt the memo we drafted had strong, legitimate reasoning behind it and Woody ignored it. Normally I find Woody to be an excellent professor who is very in touch with his students, but in light of this recent hiccup I might hold him in a different light. He is holding strong to his original beliefs despite the introduction of new, valid information from the people who care the most about what happens to this campus over the next 15-20 years, the students.