Vandy Leads the Way in Music City

As spring begins to stretch its green fingers across Nashville, there’s a sense of renewal in the air—dogwoods blooming, music humming from every street corner, and a vibrant energy pulsing through Vanderbilt University’s campus. Nestled in the heart of Music City, Vanderbilt has become a beacon for sustainability and climate action in the South, demonstrating how institutions can drive real change. The university powers its entire campus with renewable energy through a collaborative agreement with the TVA Green Invest Program, which offsets their electricity consumption with solar power.

Documentary Film Project to Focus on Down East Resilience

Two University of North Carolina Wilmington professors are collaborating this semester on a documentary celebrating community resilience, adding a new perspective to the overall effort of the Down East Resilience Network. The network, often referred to as DERN, evolved in the years after Hurricane Florence ravaged coastal North Carolina in September 2018. It’s a project of the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island, which was hit particularly hard by the slow-moving Category 1 storm.

Photo Essay: Blue Devils Dive into Oceans Week

Oceans Week at Duke University, held March 24-28, celebrated Duke’s leadership in ocean sustainability and explored how institutions like Duke can source local, regional and sustainable seafood to reduce carbon footprints and support coastal communities.

“Oceans Week was an exciting step in bringing together the many ocean-focused efforts happening across Duke—from ocean policy and marine research to sustainable seafood and coastal resilience.” said Stephanie J. Rousso.

Sun Boxes: Music as a Tool for Community and Environmental Engagement

In an era of infinite information and digital noise, combined with the mounting stress of coursework, Craig Colorusso’s Sun Boxes offer a rare respite for students: a space to slow down, listen and just be. Travelling around NC State’s campus from April 8-28, Meditation with Sun Boxes intertwines STEM, art and nature into an immersive music experience for students to unwind as they prepare for the end of the semester. Check out the Sun Boxes traveling exhibit schedule and locations here.

Seeking Solutions: Stony Brook’s Role in Collaborative Climate Action

Through its collaboration with The New York Climate Exchange, Stony Brook University serves as a vital hub connecting academic research with community action for developing and deploying dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis.

This partnership plays a key role in transforming climate research into practical solutions and community engagement.

Digging Through Trash is Not a Waste

AU boasts a current waste diversion rate of 41 percent—up from 30 percent in 2023—thanks in part to regular audits conducted by the Zero Waste Office.

Waste audits are not for the faint of stomach.

The odor is foul. The work is unglamorous. But the purpose behind digging through dozens of trash bags of waste by hand is essential to American University’s sustainability work.

Catawba College Breaking Ground on Historic Capital Improvements

New construction and renovations will elevate the campus experience and serve as a model of sustainability for the region. Catawba College will celebrate a major milestone in its campus evolution with a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, April 29, marking the beginning of the most ambitious capital improvements initiative in the institution’s history. The event will begin at 2:00 p.m. outside Ketner Hall and continue in the Tom Smith Auditorium for formal remarks.

Carbon Neutral 2025 - We did it!

Oberlin prepares its graduates to change the world for good. In 2025, we’re celebrating a milestone of change for our campus: We’ve achieved carbon neutrality!

This ambitious goal took shape more than 20 years ago. It began with a 2004 pledge of environmental stewardship by our Board of Trustees, followed two years later by Oberlin’s participation as an initial signatory on a university climate commitment that grew to include a network of some 900 U.S. institutions—the step that cemented our pledge to be carbon neutral by 2025.

Opinion: I Live in Flint, Michigan. Shuttering Environmental Justice at EPA Hurts Communities Like Mine.

I serve on the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and I believe its preservation is critical.

Eleven years ago Flint, Michigan, fatefully switched its drinking water supply to the Flint River. The consequences are well-documented: significant damage to pipes, a historic outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, system-wide lead contamination. My then-three-year-old son was one of the children who drank that lead-tainted water.

Rachel Carson’s Legacy Endures at Bear River

Tundra Swans begin to flock to northern Utah’s wetlands in early March, their snow-white bodies often blending with skies still frosted over from February. The Great Salt Lake’s wetlands are the perfect vacation homes on their journey to Canada and Alaska, full of food and space to rest.

Tundra swans, in a way, are my spark bird. I hadn’t truly committed myself to the life of a birder until a seasoned birder took me to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Rooted in Tradition: Regenerative Agriculture and Lessons from the Duke Campus Farm

From digging in the dirt on the occasional volunteer day to a class visit with my Global Maternal and Child Health class, I’ve dirtied my hands a few times at the Duke University Campus Farm. Each moment I spend there is enriching, harvesting tomatoes from the vine, and smelling the petrichor in the air after a fall rainstorm. There is something magical about seeing the literal fruits of your labor. When you harvest something you work to grow, you can almost taste the nutrients that the plant pulls from the soil.

The Forgotten Work That Feeds Us

I traced my hand along the edges of the mulch bed, feeling the rough moistness of the soil beneath my fingers as I crouched down, pulling weeds. The sun bore down relentlessly, and the heat pressed on me like a weight as I worked. Smothered in sunscreen, my peers and I moved through the rows of cilantro and carrot plants, each of us focused on clearing the stubborn weeds from the beds. Unlike the air-conditioned classrooms or comfortable dorms I could have been in, I was here, at Duke Campus Farm, braving the sweltering afternoon heat.

Underwater Graveyard Exposes Toxic DDT Threat Near Catalina Island in the New Documentary ‘Out of Plain Sight’

SDSU professor Eunha Hoh is featured in the film’s premiere at the San Diego Asian Film Festival

Not far from San Diego, under the pristine waters off the coast of Catalina Island, lurks a dirty secret. A toxic graveyard of half a million barrels, filled with decades-old manufacturing waste products, is rusting into the sea.

Spotlight on Climate-Related Health Challenges

During a presentation Elizabeth Rojo stopped at a slide listing two names and photos. The two people had recently died working on North Carolina farms in high heat conditions.

With 2.3 million farm workers in the U.S., the state of North Carolina has the sixth largest farmworker community nationwide, said Rojo, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke. Climate change is putting many of these lives at greater risk.

Will Long Island Sound Residents Make Changes to Help Protect It?

With over $1.5M in funding, Clark researcher studies how to encourage less fertilizer use, more septic upgrades

Millions of people live, work and recreate in communities that surround the 1,320-square miles that comprise Long Island Sound. Connecticut and New York have worked for decades to restore water quality and protect the wildlife, habitats, and ecosystem services provided by the Sound.

Harvard Won’t Comply With Demands From Trump Administration

Changes pushed by government ‘unmoored from the law,’ Garber says. ‘The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.’

Harvard on Monday rejected demands from the Trump administration that threaten $9 billion in research funding, arguing that the changes pushed by the government exceed its lawful authority and infringe on both the University’s independence and its constitutional rights.

Trump Official Threatens Harvard Foreign Student Admissions as More Universities Rally in Support

Kristi Noem demands university’s records on foreign students’ ‘illegal’ activities while president threatens to strip it of tax-exempt status

Donald Trump has declared that Harvard University should no longer receive federal funds, calling it a “joke” that “teaches hate and stupidity”, while his administration said the pre-eminent US university could lose its ability to enroll foreign students.

Northwestern Law Professors Win Battle as House Committee Withdraws Investigation Request

In a significant victory for academic freedom and constitutional rights, Northwestern Law School professors Sheila Bedi and Lynn Cohn have successfully challenged a federal investigation targeting their legal clinic work.  The U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee withdrew its investigative demands against Northwestern University and the Law School's Bluhm Legal Clinic program during an emergency federal court hearing in Chicago Wednesday.

University of Michigan Scraps Multimillion Dollar DEI Investment

The move shuttered the public flagship’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, effective immediately.

In Thursday’s announcement, President Santa Ono and other university leaders cited President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders attacking DEI efforts and the U.S. Department of Education’s resulting Dear Colleague letter.

Harvard University Faces $9B Federal Funding Review

The investigation into the Ivy League institution is the largest yet by the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.

The Trump administration is reviewing billions of dollars in federal grants and contracts to Harvard University over what it claimed was a failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitism, according to a Monday announcement.

Trump Administration Suspends Dozens of Princeton University’s Research Grants

Federal agencies have suspended “several dozen” federal research grants to Princeton University, the Ivy League institution announced Tuesday. The move comes as the Trump administration attacks high-profile colleges over campus antisemitism allegations. Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA, notified the university of the freezes on Monday and Tuesday, Princeton President Chris Eisgruber said in a community message.

Scholar Warns of Chilling Speech in Higher Ed After NYU Canceled Her Presentation

A prominent physician said university administrators nixed the event over concerns some material might be considered antisemitic and anti-government. A prominent public health scholar warned of self-censorship and the chilling of free speech in higher education after New York University administrators in March abruptly canceled her presentation over what she described as concerns that certain material could be perceived as antisemitic and anti-government.

Princeton Grants Suspended as Federal Pressure on Universities Grows

In a concerning development for research institutions nationwide, Princeton University has become the most recent Ivy League school to have federal funding suspended amid what many academic leaders are describing as an unprecedented federal pressure campaign targeting elite universities. Princeton President Dr. Christopher Eisgruber announced earlier this week that "several dozen" federal research grants from agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense have been halted.

Harvard University Faces Funding Ultimatum From Trump Administration

The three federal agencies behind the letter — the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. General Services Administration — said the list of nine demands represent “broad, non-exhaustive areas of reform” that Harvard must enact “to remain a responsible recipient of federal taxpayer dollars.” Their letter called on Harvard to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and prove it does not offer preferential treatment based on race, color or national origin in admissions or hiring.

Harvard Faculty, AAUP Challenge Trump Administration's $8.7 Billion Funding Threat

In what legal experts are calling a landmark case for academic freedom, Harvard faculty and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging unconstitutional attempts to control campus speech and governance through threatened funding cuts. The legal action, filed Friday, seeks to block the administration from withholding $8.7 billion in federal funding.

Tom Goldtooth: The Spiritual Warrior of Climate Justice

Tom B.K. Goldtooth has spent decades at the frontlines of environmental justice, transforming grief into power, and ceremony into resistance. A Diné and Dakota leader, he has redefined what it means to protect the Earth. Through his work as executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Goldtooth has uplifted Indigenous voices on the global stage and brought sacred teachings into spaces often dominated by policy and profit.