Students on campus have shown support for a petition to increase the use of renewable energy on campus, even if the new environmentally-sound policy would necessitate a modest increase in tuition.
The petition, which has received about 2,500 signatures, states that students would accept an increase in tuition of $1 per week—which would total $30 per year—in order to move 30 percent of Georgetown’s energy consumption to renewable sources of energy.
“People have been overwhelmingly receptive,” said Alex Johnston (SFS `08), head of Renewable Georgetown, the group that is circulating the petition. Christina Politi (SFS `10), a Renewable Georgetown member, said that she believed that nearly all freshmen and sophomores had already signed the petition at tables in Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall, Lauinger, and ICC.
“We’ve pretty much got them all,” Politi said.
“When we table, most people have already signed.”
Winnie Cantor (COL `10) is among those who have signed the petition, which has received support from over twenty student organizations on campus, including the College Democrats and EcoAction.
“I signed it. It was a good idea,” Cantor said.
Johnston said that he and several friends attended an Energy Conference at the College of William and Mary in November, where they learned that several schools began receiving a large portion of their energy from renewable sources like wind and biomass after students demanded it. Their campaign is modeled on other petitions at schools like American University, which will receive 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2012, and Western Washington University, where students agreed to a $19 per year fee to switch entirely to renewable energy.
“We’re just modeling this on what other successful universities have done,” Johnston said. “We calculated what we thought was a reasonable estimate.”
Renewable Georgetown has not yet entered any sort of formal negotiations with the University, but Johnston says that several administrators have expressed an interest. He plans to present the petition to the administration when it has enough signatures to show overwhelming support.
“We’d really like to be sitting down with administrators late this spring,” he said.
