World We Imagine

Higher-Education Environment Program (HEEP)

At HEEP, or Higher-Education Environment Program, we are dedicated to tackling climate change on the micro-level. Environmental legislation is often roadblocked by partisan bickering as well as lobbying from the very organizations responsible for high emission output and unsustainable business practices. As a group of student environmentalists, we became tired of seeing this stagnation amongst policymakers and decided to take matters into our own hands. We began by identifying harmful practices and sources of waste right here on campus. Initially, we focused on small-scale changes such as adding recycling bins and limiting electricity usage. However, as we continued our research, we stumbled upon a nationwide habit that, if eliminated, could result in a monumental reduction of student greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We have since adapted our mission to focus on this singular issue: combining Thanksgiving and winter recesses across the US’s higher-education institutions.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 19.9 million students were projected to attend US colleges and universities in fall 2019 (NCES). Come Thanksgiving, any student who wishes to return home is bound to release some level of GHG emissions. Perhaps it’s a USC student who simply needs to drive 30 minutes to her home in Pasadena. Or, maybe it’s a USC student from Cincinnati who needs to pay for an Uber to LAX so he can catch a flight to a layover in Denver, followed by a second flight to CVG Airport in order to get back to his home city. The list of potential scenarios goes on. Thanksgiving passes, and three days later each of these students must repeat the process to return for a week of classes and a handful of finals. 14 days after that, they repeat the process again. As you can imagine, the tradition of having separate breaks for Thanksgiving and winter recess is antiquated and wasteful. Students who choose to travel for both breaks must expend money and emissions to do so. Students who cannot afford to return home, whether it be for financial or practical reasons, are left by themselves to wait-out the holiday.

The great thing about our mission is that there are few fundamental barriers to accomplishing this goal. Resistant would mainly come from those reluctant to alter the academic calendar. However, we believe that through on-campus rallies and awareness campaigns we could enlighten administrators (and fellow students) on how beneficial combining these breaks would be.

In fact, a handful of US colleges have already adopted a single break into their annual calendar. In 2012, Dartmouth College voted to begin the fall term a week earlier, and end it by the Thanksgiving holiday (Dartmouth News). Before the change, students would “return to campus after Thanksgiving break for just two days of classes, have two pre-examination study days, take finals, and then depart again for winter break,” wrote former provost Carol L. Folt. “The financial and logistical challenges of this schedule also meant that many students have been unable to travel home to spend the holidays with their families” (Jenkins). Although the new calendar was not motivated by environmental efforts, Dartmouth’s current registrar stated that the new system has been working well and that students have appreciated the advantages of a singular recess (Jenkins).

We ask for the support of Amina Mundi Development Partners because we require backing to finance our initial campaigns. Most of our operating costs will be derived from event fliers, informational pamphlets, and paying for any necessary permits. However, due to the socially conscious efforts of our organization, we believe that once we gain notability and momentum our costs will exponentially decline. College student bodies are composed of passionate individuals willing to fight for environmental progress on a volunteer basis. Although our mission begins on our own campus, we believe that with your help this movement will ripple across higher-education institutions nationwide. Students have more influence over administrative decisions than ever before, and together we can make a meaningful difference that will benefit the environment for generations to come.