February 11, 2005

Berea College's 'Ecological About-Face'

By MALCOLM G. SCULLY

Larry D. Shinn, president of Berea College, thinks a lot about the concept of living upstream. It is a vision of environmental responsibility and sustainability that has shaped his ambitions for the unusual liberal-arts institution he has led since 1994.

To live downstream, he explains, is to live with the consequences of pollution added upstream, to argue about who is responsible for creating it and cleaning it up, and to refuse to take any action until all the facts are in. To live