Last week’s release of the College Sustainability Report Card 2009 raises an important question: What does it mean for higher education to adopt sustainability as a core financial strategy?

As Andrea Putman and I discuss in our forthcoming book, Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change, a commitment to sustainability can both maximize benefits and minimize risks. It can lead to a more efficient use of limited resources, higher productivity, and the development of distributed leadership on campus. It can create greater collaboration across organizational silos, strengthen trust with external stakeholders, and enhance a...

Will there be more vacant holes in the ground at Colorado’s state universities? Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has called for a freeze on all state-supported construction projects, according to news outlets in the state. The Associated Press described the move as “a major reversal for Ritter,” who had recently said it was too early to begin slashing the state budget.

The wire service said the freeze could affect three building projects at the University of Colorado: a $9.4-million renovation of an arts-and-sciences building on the Boulder campus, due for completion next year; a $15-million renovation of a science building, also on the Boulder campus; and the construction of a science building on the Colorado Springs campus.

The governor, a...

West Point’s new library was designed to fit in with other buildings on the campus. (Holzman Moss Architecture image)

Library at West Point: If you were compiling a list of hard-to-match campus-architecture styles, you’d probably put that of the United States Military Academy near the top. It’s Collegiate Gothic as interpreted by the Army Corps of Engineers — on a monumental-looking scale and with a blocky aesthetic. Which is to say, it’s a challenge. But Malcolm Holzman, of Holzman Moss Architecture, collaborated with STV Group and the Corps of Engineers to produce a six-story, $65-million library that The New York Times...

Last week I sat through interviews to select a master-plan consultant for a mid-size university. The university has grown steadily the last 10 years, and is seeking to update its master plan. We are advising the university (and its selection committee) on transportation, infrastructure, and stormwater issues.

Each of the firms was highly qualified and gave a very good presentation. There were common threads: All sought to be sustainable in their approach; all focused on place-making and on spaces for socializing and exchanging ideas; all were visionary and supported the mission of the university. The planning process was to be participatory and inclusive. The presentation materials were seductive. One firm presented sepia-toned plans supported by...

The Sustainable Endowments Institute’s 2009 College Sustainability Report Card, which is bound to please many and irritate many more, comes out today.

A release from the institute notes that “only five” of the 15 top-rated schools are from the Ivy League: Brown, Columbia, and Harvard Universities, Dartmouth College, and the University of Pennsylvania. Many other colleges in the top 15 are well heeled, if not Ivy: Carleton, Dickinson, Middlebury, and Oberlin Colleges, Stanford University, and the Universities of British Columbia, Colorado, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington.

The F-rated colleges include Brigham Young, Bryant, and Howard Universities and Hillsdale College. It appears that they and others did not respond to the survey.

The report card rates 300 colleges, and an executive summary...

John A. Ochsendorf, an associate professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a winner of a MacArthur “genius grant” this year. The Chronicle interviewed Mr. Ochsendorf a couple of years ago about his scholarship, which includes using computer software to model and analyze how the stones, columns, and buttresses in Gothic cathedrals have managed to support their weight and that of the building. Read about it here.

Offsets are for wimps: Larry E. Penley, president of Colorado State University at Fort Collins, recently announced that the university would be carbon neutral by 2020, an ambitious goal by any measure. The interesting thing is that the university is not going to rely on carbon offsets to reach this goal — offsets are often a safety valve for other universities striving for neutrality. Of course, it helps that the university is in the midst of planning a huge wind farm that will generate far more power than the university uses.

Hello, neighbor: Saint Vincent College will open the Fred M. Rogers Center, a $14-million, 36,500-square-foot building. The building will feature a center for early learning, a Fred M. Rogers archive, galleries, and a conference...

Green Mountain College is trying to raise crops without using fossil fuels on its college farm. This means that the students Ryan Dixon (the teamster) and Casey Martin (riding the mower) have to put Lou and Bill to work. (Green Mountain College image)

Newsprint is a finite medium, which means that there is always information that writers have to leave out in order to fit into the space available — especially if there is a lot going on in a particular topic. Such was the case this week with a story about local and sustainable food at Emory University and other institutions, including Middlebury College and Green Mountain College. You can read the story here, along with a sidebar about

The University of Iowa has been asked to pay $25-million, or roughly 10 percent, of the damages caused by last spring’s major flooding, which inundated 20 campus buildings and destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of scientific and other equipment, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported today.

Douglas K. True, Iowa’s senior vice president and treasurer, announced at the university’s Board of Regents meeting on Thursday that the bulk of the $232-million in estimated damages will be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the institution’s insurer, which has also agreed to advance the university $20-million.

So far the recovery has cost the university $48-million, according to the Press-Citizen. The regents also...

A $190-million media and arts center is opening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute image)

One hill, two functions: Staff members at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute expect to be giving lots of tours next month, when the university formally opens the $190-million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center that it dug into a hillside with a 45-degree slope. The building, which the university says is “the world’s largest multifunction space dedicated to scientific research and the performing arts,” houses a traditional concert hall and flexible spaces for experimental art, performance, or research. Design was by