Jared Hameloth
Editor in Chief
In March of 2020, Millersville President Dr. Daniel Wubah will travel to Barcelona, Spain to outline and share some of the work that the MU community has been doing during his tenure. He will specifically be speaking about the university’s Positive Energy Fund (PEF), which is a generated endowment that helps fund “faculty-, staff- and student-led projects that will contribute positively to local and global communities,” according to the university website.
The Lombardo Welcome Center on campus remains the major contributor to this fund; the money that the center saves by being a “zero energy building” (meaning it produces more power than it consumes) goes into the energy fund, fueling sustainability projects in the local area.
Wubah will be speaking at the “International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals and Higher Education” put on by the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi). The goal of the conference is to “put the spotlight on how higher education institutions are embedding sustainable development in their core missions, and will focus on showcasing, explaining and sharing scientific research,” according to the GUNi event description.
Dr. Wubah explained his mindset regarding Millersville’s commitment to a sustainable future: “It’s more of a process, not a destination,” he said. He talked about how the university has to have initiatives put in place that “promote an ongoing effort to sustainability.”
The university had to submit a proposal to speak at the event since it will host many organizations and institutions from around the world. They were officially accepted to speak as of Nov. 6.
Chris Steuer, Millersville’s Sustainability Director, remains enthusiastic about travelling to Barcelona, and said that “it should be an exciting opportunity to share some of our sustainability work with an international audience and to continue to make connections to elevate MU’s global profile.” Dr. Wubah, Steuer, and Guilbert Brown, who is the Interim Vice President for Finance and Administration, will all be attending the conference next year.
Through the Positive Energy Fund, Millersville has financed projects such as “Project Green Lancaster,” which was created by the media and broadcasting program on campus. The money received from the first year of the PEF will help transition Project Green’s focus more towards social media engagement to help raise awareness of the ways that Lancaster is creating a greener, more sustainable world.
Students are encouraged to submit proposals for the projects they would like funded through the university. This includes “submitting a project narrative that describes your project” as part of the application on the Millersville website. The 2020 cycle for applications will be available during fall 2019.
