As many of you know, I teach a course at Colby College called “Advocating for the Environment”. I’ll admit it’s a challenge for me to get up on dark January mornings and make the hour plus commute to campus. But the eagerness and dedication of the students make it worth it.
As I strolled the campus this year, I marveled at the many new buildings and athletic facilities that have been built in recent years.
The baseball and softball complex features an indoor batting range, public restrooms and two turf fields with brand new electronic scoreboards. Quite a difference from the mud puddles of my college days!
A new performing arts center features floor to ceiling glass, an auditorium with moveable walls to adjust the acoustics, spacious scenery and costume shops, and a dance studio with a spring loaded floor. According to the college magazine, six new Steinway pianos were ordered to furnish the practice rooms.
In seeing this, my first reaction was disdain and disappointment. As I viewed this luxury and privilege, I could only think of places where people struggle to get enough to eat. Or places where emissions from plastics plants and oil refineries poison low income neighborhoods.
But on further reflection, I began to think about the importance of holding an expansive vision, and then engaging others in support of it.
Under the leadership of President David Greene, Colby has crafted a big vision and motivated alumni, parents and foundations to embrace it. The creativity required to envision, design and build educational programs and the infrastructure to house them is extraordinary.
Colby’s vision has extended to downtown Waterville, too. Green brought together local elected officials, civic and business leaders to find ways to attract businesses and spur investment in the downtown.
As a result, $200 million has been invested in a hotel, a residence hall, art studios, galleries, and public infrastructure. Where vacant and deteriorating buildings once stood there are new restaurants, businesses and offices. As many as thirty new businesses have come to town following the initial investments.
Colby’s investments have attracted top talent to their campus too. People like Tahiya Chowdhury, a post-doc fellow working on using AI to improve lives. And students: student applications are up 350% since 2014. Financial aid is up almost as much, with a recent gift of $50m for financial aid from the Lunder Foundation.
It’s not always true that “if you build it they will come”. But it is true that change always starts with a vision. Because we can only create what we can first imagine.
What would living in harmony with the earth look like? How would it feel to value all life and treat every plant, animal and person with deep respect? How could we create an economy where caring for the earth and her people is our top priority?
Colby provides an example of envisioning and bringing about change at the scale of one school and one community. And it begs us to ask these larger visionary questions.
And asking these questions is the first step in creating a healthy and sustainable future.