Debate: Does the Sustainability Movement Belong on Campus?

Ashley Thorne

This week at Bloomberg Businessweek's online forum The Debate Room, I and Paul Rowland of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) assess the place of the sustainability movement in higher education. 

Thesis: The campus sustainability movement subtracts from the better purposes of higher education. Pro or con?

I (pro) write, "Higher education at best pursues truth through disciplined application of evidence and reason. The sustainability movement undermines this mission by substituting activism for inquiry."

Paul Rowland (con) writes, "What better purpose for higher education than to ensure future generations have opportunities for living a healthy life in a healthy environment with a healthy socioeconomic system? Higher education in America has become a public good, not just a private, individual good." 

Click here to read the whole debate at Bloomberg Businessweek.com.

 

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