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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


As I write this message, two kinds of “green” are on my mind -- both pointing to the importance of sustainability but in very different ways.

I’ll start with the celebratory green first: Greentopia. MCC is the lead sponsor of the inaugural Rochester Greentopia festival, to be held this weekend. When I learned about this festival from one of our faculty members, Joel Helfrich, I convened a group to discuss how it might fit with our sustainability efforts. And, the answer was: quite well!

MCC has long been a leader in energy conservation, and the college was among the first to integrate sustainability studies into its curriculum. We are now home to two LEED-certified facilities with another soon to be named with this distinction.  Our sustainability efforts were formalized when MCC became a signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and were underscored more recently when we joined the AACC’s Sustainability Education and Economic Development (SEED) task force. As the name of this group suggests, its focus is on academic programs related to the “green” jobs sector -- whether in fields ranging from alternative energies to green building to remanufacturing. In addition, MCC is home to the GROW Monroe efforts of the Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute, which promotes the benefits of buying local and the localvore movement that has brought renewed attention and economic development to Upstate agriculture and small businesses.

Add all this to the fact that this festival celebrates the opportunities to be found in downtown Rochester and the innovative spirit of our community, and it was clear that we needed to be part of this weekend’s events. So, I hope you will join me in historic High Falls this weekend as Rochester goes green! While you’re there, be sure to visit the MCC Workforce Development booth or look for the Monroe on the Go food truck. For more details on Greentopia, please visit
https://greentopiafestival.com.

And, there’s one more project related to sustainability I want to share. Our MCC community is being asked to help sustain students whose lives have been upended by the significant and repeated flooding that has impacted several of our sister SUNY institutions this fall.  Through a system-wide initiative, SUNY Helps, we are being asked to contribute to a fund that can be accessed by students to cover unexpected expenses created by the dramatic weather of the past few weeks. By donating some of your green, you will help sustain the academic future of students who may have, quite literally, lost everything. If you give just a little, it will add up to a lot. So, I encourage you to make contributions to the SUNY Helps fund through the MCC Foundation by next Friday, September 23, either through cash or check. Thank you, in advance, for the spirit of generosity that makes the MCC community so special.  For more information on SUNY Helps, please contact the MCC Foundation (262-1500 or <
mailto:mccf@monroecc.edu>).

In his rephrasing of the ‘golden rule,’ Wendell Berry came up with a turn of phrase that seems quite appropriate to both kinds of sustainability I’ve written about today: “Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you."  I’m certain those downstream, whether future generations or flooded campuses, would appreciate your efforts on their behalf.   

I encourage you to share your green thoughts on the
blog.

Anne Kress
President's Office
09/14/2011