The college announced earlier this month that the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, overseeing campus sustainability efforts, would merge with the Center for Environmental Studies (CES), responsible for Williams’ co-curricular programming. The result is the new Zilkha Center for the Environment.
The merger reflects an evolution in the college’s significant work toward both sustainability and environmental education, which continues to reside within the Environmental Studies Program.
“The change will enable the college to support a vibrant, interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program alongside a commitment to campus sustainability and a flourishing co-curriculum related to the environment and sustainability,” say Provost Eiko Maruko Siniawer ’97 and Dean of the Faculty Lara Shore-Sheppard. “We are excited by the potential of this new structure to deepen opportunities for students from across many areas of study to learn about, engage with, and research vitally important issues of the environment and sustainability.”
Tanja Srebotnjak has been named executive director of the new Zilkha Center for the Environment. She came to Williams in 2020 as director of the previous incarnation of the center, leading efforts to reduce carbon emissions on campus, overseeing a comprehensive recycling guide for handling waste, helping to determine the environmental impact of buildings and landscaping, and partnering with Dining Services to implement sustainable food initiatives, among many other initiatives.
A notable initiative under the new center is the recently founded Williams Environmental Justice Clinic. This clinic empowers communities seeking justice and reparations by identifying sources of pollution. To date, the clinic has collaborated with communities nationwide and has provided support to 30 students.
Sarah Jacobson, an economics professor, has been named chair of the Environmental Studies Program. A distinguished educator and researcher in microeconomics and environmental and experimental economics, she came to Williams in 2010. She teaches courses including Introduction to Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Economics of Environmental Behavior.
The new structure “represents new manifestations of commitments to teaching and learning about the environment at Williams that have continually evolved for over 50 years,” Siniawer and Shore-Sheppard add. “Generations of faculty, staff and students have together shaped interdisciplinary and experiential approaches that best reflect the skills, perspectives and experiences necessary for their respective eras. In each moment, the focus has been the same—to prepare our graduates to be leaders in environmental work—and it remains so today.”
Read more about the new structure in a joint letter from Jacobson and Srebotnjak.
Published July 16, 2024