I’m not a tree hugger, but …

Most falls, I teach Government 350, Introduction to Public Policy, a course that generally enrolls about 85 students across two sections. A comprehensive introduction to domestic public policy making in the U.S, the course is a fairly popular elective within the government concentration and the keystone class for our public policy concentration. I’ve probably taught “Introduction to Public Policy” 20 times since creating it during my first year at the College in 1987. The nature of the readings for the course has changed a lot from semester to semester. Some years there were two or three large textbooks, supplemented by newspaper and magazine articles. Other years I relied on six or seven shorter “treatises” authored by prominent academic analysts of the policy making process. When I orient the class around books, the costs to individual students (in current dollars) can be $200 or more. Just do the math. Aggregated across more than 80 students, that comes to almost $17,000 just for books. Wow!

There are other, perhaps less obvious, costs to all of these course books. The average college class consumes all kinds of paper, with unfortunate consequences for energy usage and environmental sustainability. In the typical class, hundreds or even thousands of books are purchased and used. Although there is a serious “used book” market at most universities, a lot of publishers bring out new editions of their most popular texts every year or two, often with only minor changes, to maximize new sales and their own profits. And it’s not just about the books. Students are always writing and printing out paper drafts as part of class assignments. Every year they submit to their professors hard copies of countless quizzes, midterms, and final examinations.

Alright, alright. I recognize that the practical logistics of college classes are not responsible for deforestation in the Amazon and the threat of global warming. I don’t think I am particularly “crunchy” and no one has ever accused me of being a “tree hugger.” But the best scientific data does demonstrate that all of us need to take steps to conserve energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Aggregated across millions of people, these small behavioral changes can make a difference.

Recently, I’ve been reading about energy and environmental sustainability efforts at William and Mary. We have a committee of dedicated faculty, administrators, staff, and students that is charged with promoting sustainability at the College and making recommendations for change. Basically, their job is to hold our feet to the fire on this important challenge. Among other recommendations, faculty members are being encouraged to make their courses as paperless as possible.

One consequence? This fall, there will be no books of any sort assigned in “Introduction to Public Policy.”

I’ve put together a reading list comprised of journal articles, selected chapters from books, government reports, and studies from think tanks. Interestingly, about half of these materials are available on line, and the rest I was able to scan and convert to PDF while staying within the “fair use” copyright standards for academic classes. The Blackboard course site for the class is a great way to make these readings electronically accessible to students. I’m going to do every thing I can to get the 80 plus students enrolled in the class to read these materials on-line and not print them out. The cost savings for them should be substantial and hopefully we will make a small contribution to the College’s broader sustainability effort.

And the more I think about it, there are other ways to promote sustainability in the class. Of course, over the semester we will talk a lot about environmental policy – the course is an introduction to public policy after all. But I think it should be feasible to make the assignments nearly paperless. Students will write at least two short papers for the class and take a midterm and final examination. There’s no reason why the papers can’t be submitted to me electronically via email or the assignment “drop box” of the Blackboard course site for Government 350. Along those lines, I may ask the students to complete the essay portions of the two exams outside of class and submit their responses to me electronically.

Obviously, there are some college courses where the use of large textbooks is crucial. Some course assignments have to be completed in “hard copy.” We may not ever be able to completely do away with the use of paper in higher education. Still, the more you think about it, there are lots of ways to take small, very doable, steps to promote sustainability in the day-to-day operations of colleges like William and Mary.