Amber Kim (wak2118@tc.columbia.edu)
Darren Rabinowitz (dr3011@tc.columbia.edu)
On Friday February 14th TC Student Senate hosted the Student Action Forum. At this event, individuals who are part of the Music Education Department, the TC Initiative for Sustainable Futures and the TC Academic Workers shared what they are currently working on. The common theme amongst the presenters was all to make a more inclusive, just, and transparent learning environment at TC.
As students committed to sustainability on campus, we brought a call-to-action to students to influence administration and faculty perceptions of sustainability and its importance at TC. After sharing our research, we hosted a 40 minute long Q&A with the other students in the room. They asked many questions about the current infrastructure at TC specifically relating to waste management, food services (Culinart), and how TC Facilities is thinking about sustainable practices.
Following the presentation and Q&A, students discussed the next steps of registering the Sustainability Task Force (STF) as a student organization for the upcoming school year. Working with other students, we imagine STF will advocate for sustainability on campus but also serve as a growing source of interdisciplinary sustainability knowledge. We focused on defining the reciprocal relationships between STF, the new Student Senate Sustainability Committee (SSSC), and the forthcoming Center for Sustainable Futures (CFSF). We discussed how these three entities could work effectively and collaboratively together in order to cultivate a culture of sustainability practice and ethos at TC through a whole school approach.
As both Amber and I are graduating this May 2020, we are excited to pass on the STF into the hands of ambitious TC students who are ready to lead TC into its own sustainable future.
If you are interested please sign up through this google form to keep up to date and involved in all things sustainability at TC.