Radford University has made an immense effort in addressing environmental issues on campus this year, but has yet to find a director for the seven-year-old program known as the Environmental Center. The center has been inactive since last January 2009 when the former director Dr. Judith Guinan resigned so that she could devote more time to a research project.

The center, which worked hand -in-hand with environmental clubs like the Green Team on campus, attempted to increase awareness of environmental issues on campus.

“Our purposes are: to raise the level of environmental awareness and appreciation within the university and the community beyond and to foster collaborative projects and research that will improve the quality of our environment and support the identification and adoption of environmentally sustainable practices in our everyday lives,” as stated by the Environmental Center’s Mission Statement.

The center was founded by former RU president Dr. Douglas Covington and  Guinan and volunteers from the RU community staffed it.

“The Environmental Center’s work was education/academic. We organized lectures, movie events, and projects,” Guinan said. ”While I was director, one of the projects that I helped organize was the NSF-funded RU Wetland Curriculum Project.”

The center’s support and foundation lay in Guinan, volunteers and students. The center’s actual main office and center of operations was Guinan’s on-campus office.

“The center never had an operating budget. In other words, we had no regular source of money,” Guinan said. “I was given some release time from my normal duties as a faculty member to devote to the work of the Center. For some special events, the College of Arts and Sciences would contribute some funding.”

The center also received funding for the special events from campus groups like student organizations and the Honors Academy. Even Verizon, the multibillion-dollar cell phone provider, helped fund an event.

“We worked closely with student groups [like the Green Team] and with other campus groups interested in the environment on these projects,” Guinan said. “We also tried to tie these events into class activities by alerting faculty across campus and by working with them to involve their students.”

Remnants of the center however, still remain despite its overall inactivity like the center’s Web site, which has not been updated since October 2008. That update was for a Sustainability Awareness Event that was scheduled for Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

As of right now there are no plans at reorganizing the center around a new director, according to those close to the situation and for at least the foreseeable future the Environmental Center at RU will remain inactive.

Cover and story photos from Creative Commons

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