Campus Green Builder

By Marya McQuirter, PhD
chocolate & arugula

Emancipation Oak at Hampton University
Photo Credit: Hampton University Admissions Office

If you think that sustainability or being green is new in higher education, Hampton University says think again. According to Hampton, the university's alumni magazine, sustainability is old school.

“In this time of global environmental change, Hampton University has responded by implementing “green” practices. In 1868, when General Samuel Chapman Armstrong founded Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, it was built as an environmentally and economically sustainable campus. Now, HU is reclaiming and reinventing that sustainability to adapt to the 21st century.”

(Current adaptations include President William R. Harvey's HU Goes Green Committee, recycling, purchasing hybrid vehicles, eliminating unnecessary vehicles for personnel, using eco-friendly cleaning products, holding forums for student input and establishing guidelines for new construction and renovation.)

I love it!

Hampton University is introducing its sustainability initiatives to alumni by harking back to the institution's development. In doing so, university officials are promoting sustainability as a way to be both true to the university's origins and to the future of the university. Brilliant! This should be exciting news to alumni who are into sustainability and should mitigate concerns about changes to the university.

Hampton University is also implicitly questioning widespread assertions that sustainability is new and foreign to Hampton (and other HBCUs). This is an important discursive move not to be taken lightly. While “catch-up” narratives may make sense in the philanthropic arena, they aren't particularly useful, or should, at least, be critiqued in intellectual spaces.

I would love to see (or hear about) a Hampton student taking on old school sustainability as a research project. I know that 15 acres of the campus that lie along the Hampton River constitute a National Historic Landmark District and that there is a historic & revered tree—Emancipation Oak—on the campus. So I'm curious about the place of the river in the school's history and the impact of the tree on Hampton's architecture and landscape.

Can any Pirates enlighten us about Hampton's green history?

Source:

• Hampton - The Alumni Magazine of Hampton University, Spring 2009, accessed 19 February 2010

Marya McQuirter, PhD is a sustainability consultant, scholar and blogger based in Washington, DC. She works with universities, businesses and non-profits on researching, writing and marketing their sustainability portfolios. She also lectures widely on sustainability and writes about sustainability on her blog, chocolate & arugula.