2. Expand the teaching of environmental literacy.

photo by Gene Bakko

Because we are a liberal arts college, we'll apply liberal arts perspectives to all of the environmental issues confronting us. The main product of a liberal arts college is thoughtfulness, embodied in people (faculty, students and staff) who are thoughtful in two ways: they know how to think carefully, and they know how to care about other people and places. At St. Olaf, we'll teach and learn the meanings of environmental literacy across the different disciplines, and we'll ponder the implications of knowing how nature-including human nature--really works. Outside classrooms, too-in offices and dorm rooms and the bookstore and cafeteria and the power plant and on the grounds-we'll teach and train each other how to make the college-and eventually the world-more sustainable. Mindful of campus ecology, we'll consider every moment a teachable moment, and every space a potential classroom.