International Education Week celebrates students who attend college outside their home countries. Their curiosity builds a more democratic, secure and prosperous world. This week, ShareAmerica looks at opportunities for international students in the U.S.
There’s a push for new, strict rules at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and it’s not coming from the administrators.
Students formed the Bowling Green’s Environmental Action Group, which earlier this year marched to university President Mary Ellen Mazey’s office with banners and petitions demanding the school commit to using 100 percent clean energy, such as renewables and alternative fuels.
Bowling Green is listening. A university spokesman said the school supports the idea of a clean-energy campus, but must balance the expense of the switch against the school’s financial stability.
Students at Boston University also focus on environmental issues. They organized a group called DivestBU that seeks to end investments by the school’s endowment in large fossil-fuel companies. When 245 BU faculty members supported DivestBU and delivered their petition to the president’s office, he engaged them in a conversation on the school’s plans.
“We expected to just drop off the letter,” Professor Nathan Phillips told the school newspaper. “The fact that he came out to meet with us is tremendous.”
The issue is heating up at other schools too:
- The University of Pennsylvania has more than 20 student environmental groups, many supported by faculty.
- Students at the University of Pittsburgh want to ban the sale of bottled water on campus to reduce the number of unrecycled plastic water bottles in landfills.
Keep up with information about U.S. study at EducationUSA and learn more with other ShareAmerica stories on study in the USA.