Is Eastern a liberal arts college? If we want to know the answer, we must know something about what “liberal arts” means.

It was the early Medievals who canonized the liberal arts. The premise was that activities are internally ordered towards some goal. The “fine arts”, painting, drama, dance, music, etc., are ordered towards the making or performing of beautiful things. The “useful arts”, carpentry, engineering, law, nursing, etc., are ordered towards meeting some inescapable need of human society.

The “liberal arts” are those which aim at libera, Latin for freedom. But this is not merely freedom from outside interference, in the way we think of political freedom; if it is a freedom from anything, it is from vice, from the chaos of a disordered soul. Primarily it is a freedom for something; the pianist is only truly free to play Mozart once she has ordered her mind and fingers by practice. By practicing the liberal arts, the human becomes free to think, to pursue truth for its own sake.

It is not a question of what “subjects” one studies. It is a question of what arts one acquires. The liberal arts begin with these three: Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. Grammar teaches us where words come from and how they are ordered. Logic teaches us to argue, to use words sensibly. Rhetoric teaches us to organize words so as to be pleasing and persuasive.

This may seem dull; after all, who wants to study grammar? And yet, for a human to be free, he must master language. Frederick Douglass writes that it was only when he learned to read that he became aware of the wretchedness of his slavery and sought to escape it. Once he had tasted the freedom which came with the ability to read, he says, “I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast… Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking!” Plato agrees. It is unpleasant to be dragged out of the cave, filled with only shadows, into the light of truth. And yet this is the beginning of freedom.

Is Eastern a liberal arts college? What is at stake in this question is far more than institutional identity, marketing strategies or the variety of course offerings. An ancient ideal is at stake, one which marks the connection between truth and freedom.

Sources: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, ch. 7.

 

You might remember from the last issue of the Waltonian that Eastern claims to have been “the first college in PA to power a campus on 100% wind energy.” So says our “Green Energy Program Postcard” which you can find attached to the “Green Energy Program” page on Eastern’s website. As it turns out, this claim is true. Here’s part of the story of how it began.

When I asked student development for information on this, I was informed that former VP of Student Development, Bettie Ann Brigham, was the most informed person on the subject and had been involved in the program early on. However, due to Brigham’s controversial departure in 2017, an event current juniors and seniors might remember, it is more difficult to piece together the origin story of Eastern’s use of wind energy.

However, after some digging, I was given a 46 page document of student and local news articles from around the U.S. which commented on Eastern’s use of wind power. This wealth of documentation is impressive and gives a sense of the widespread impact Eastern’s green initiatives had at the time. Here’s what I’ve pieced together.

In 2002 there was a club at Eastern called the Sustainable Peace Initiative which proposed the idea of buying wind energy. Initially, by going dorm room to dorm room, they raised $3,000 in order to buy wind power for 3% of Eastern’s usage for the 2002-2003 school year. This student-led initiative worked with student government and administration and went on to convince 1,047 out of 1,500 full-time undergraduate students to voluntarily add $22 to their student bills in order to purchase 37% of Eastern’s power from wind sources for 2003-2004. This was a higher percentage than any other U.S. college or university at the time. The goal was to reach 100% wind power within three years.

An environmental science major at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is quoted as saying “I’m jealous of Eastern buying 37%.” There are more quotes like this, from a variety of sources, including administrators and civil servants. This one I take to be representative of the attitude people and institutions around the U.S. had towards Eastern’s initiative. They were impressed. But it also shows the considerable exposure this initiative received. I imagine there are very few Chapel Hill students today who have ever heard of Eastern. But at that time Eastern was setting the pace, and other institutions knew it.

The students who led this initiative wanted to make participation in the Green Energy Program mandatory, an unavoidable feature of the student bill. But President of Eastern David Black tempered their zeal and made it possible for students to opt out of the program, an option still available today. Black is quoted as saying, “We all want the same thing – for every student to participate in the fee. But we just don’t force goodness; we think everybody should be good.”

This tone of moral concern resonates with other characters from these articles. The Student Government President at the time, Robin Weinstein, claimed the decision to pursue green energy was “centered around the mission of Eastern University and its commitment to environmental justice.” Sherrie Steiner, then a sociology professor at Eastern who helped start the initiative, was disappointed that President Black made participation optional. But she too felt that “this whole thing was really about hope, hope for the future.”

Another document, which appears to be a promotional handout, the kind you might see on the bulletin boards around Eastern, says that “This campus is projected to use 15 1/2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity this year, all of that energy will be powered by clean, renewable wind.” There’s no date, but the name at the bottom is Bettie Ann Brigham. Another document confirms that we reached 100% wind power in 2006.

Today, the Green Fee on our student bills still goes to Community Energy to purchase wind power.
Sources: Special thanks to Sally Kapner in Student Development for all the helpful information and documents.

By now you have probably at least seen that you have a bill for the spring semester. If you look a little closer at the bill, you will find a section called “fees” and tucked away in there you will find a “Green Energy Fee”.

At that point you may have thought “isn’t that nice” and carried on. Many of you may have contacted accounting and gotten them to waive the fee (which is a thing you can do; it’s voluntary). Or, you may have thought, “What? Green energy? At Eastern?” If this last reaction is yours, here’s a brief introduction to the green energy status of Eastern.

You may have dug a little deeper. If you did, you probably discovered a page on Eastern’s website entitled “Green Initiatives” which outlined recycling, solar, and wind initiatives. You may have also found a page entitled “Green Energy Program” which contained a link to a promotional “postcard” which claims that “Eastern University was the first college in PA to power a campus on 100% wind energy.” It then claims that Eastern is still powered by exclusively wind and solar power.

Still, you ask? Like 2020 still? I don’t have an answer to that yet, although the fact that we’re still paying for it in our student bills would suggest that Eastern is still purchasing wind power. I have not yet tracked down confirmation that the money is really going to Community Energy: the organization which the “Green Initiatives” page claims sources our wind energy. Community Energy does exist, and they do partner with a variety of organizations on green energy projects. They also offer Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) which allow organizations to purchase power from wind and solar farms around the U.S.

However, I have been able to confirm one part of the story. There are, in fact, solar panels on the roof of ELC. Granted, I have not seen them myself, but here’s what convinced me. If you go to the “Green Initiatives” page and you click the link under “Solar Panel Generations” you will find a live graph of the power being produced by the solar panels on ELC. According to that site, the panels have been operating since Jan. 2016, and this month alone (Jan. 2020) they have already produced over two and a half megawatt hours (MWh) of power. To put that in perspective, it’s the amount of energy that would be produced by burning 190 gallons of gasoline. Over the course of their lifetime so far, these solar panels have produced over 503 MWh, which is the equivalent of 53,484 gallons of gasoline.

And now we come to the sad part of the story. When I first looked into this, the link to the solar panel monitoring site wasn’t working at all, and the link entitled “Eastern’s partnering with Community Energy” took me to an athletics FAQs page. When I contacted Plant Operations at Eastern, it was apparently the first they had heard of this. They contacted Eastern’s IT department and reached out to Community Energy and eventually got the link up and running. However the wind energy link now just takes you to the “Green Energy Program” page which actually tells you nothing about any partnership with Community Energy. This is one of the reasons I’m not completely convinced we are still living on wind power.

The story of how these initiatives got started is a fascinating one, but I will have to tell it another time. It is enough to say that in a previous era (around 2006-2008, when this initiative was started by students at Eastern) there were students who cared deeply about these sorts of things and were committed to shaping Eastern to reflect their values. Now those students are gone, and apparently no one took up the cause after them. Now it seems that very few students even know these initiatives are (or were) in place. But is our ignorance due to the lack of publicity on the part of Eastern, or is it due to our own lack of inquisitiveness and, perhaps, lethargy?

Recent news that convicted sex-offender Jefferey Epstein quietly donated $1.7 million dollars to M.I.T.’s Media Lab has some people questioning the morality of higher education funding. Joichi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, worked with others to conceal the origin of these funds, making them appear to be anonymous donations. When news got out, he resigned.

Some are concerned that accepting these donations enabled Epstein to rebuild his public image by boasting about the interactions with famous scientists which these donations made possible. However, besides indirectly enabling criminals to win popularity, there are deeper assumptions which undergird the moral horror many feel at the thought of accepting Epstein’s donations.

First, these moral objections often assume, consciously or unconsciously, that when you accept money from someone, you are tacitly affirming what that person does. In our society, moral condemnation occurs through boycotting; we socially or economically ostracize those whose money and reputation are now tainted by their deeds.

Second, it is difficult to bite the hand that feeds you. If you accept money, even if you rationalize it as a casual gift, it will affect the way you think about the giver. You will, if only subconsciously, look more favorably on the giver and perhaps feel the need to return the favor. This makes it difficult, not only publically, but internally as well, to criticize or condemn the giver.

But consider a parallel case. While Epstein, a private donor, accounts for $1.7 million in higher education funding, federal and state governments account for billions, and not just at state schools. Private schools, including Eastern, also participate in a funding program we know well: federal financial aid. According to J. Pernell Jones, Eastern’s Vice President of Finance and Operation, “Last year, EU students received approximately $30 million in federal financial aid (i.e., direct loans, Pell, SEOG, Federal Work Study, etc.).” Given that Eastern’s total revenue for the same year was $73 million, one can see just how substantial federal aid is to the Eastern community.

Given the moral assumptions outlined above, consider the implications.

First, if schools and individual students accept government aid, then they tacitly affirm the actions of that government. For good or ill, the government thereby makes itself a permanent good guy. (If you doubt this, consider the cringe we all felt when I mentioned financial aid. There’s no denying that we like government help in paying for college.)

Second, accepting funding makes it, if only subtly, more difficult to criticize the government, at least, difficult to do so without hypocrisy. After all, how can we criticize the government for interfering in the function of foreign governments for economic gain, like in Latin America, for instance, when we ourselves, if only indirectly, benefit from such gains and enjoy doing so?

There may be a third concern as well. If you’ve ever seen someone plan a wedding their parents are paying for, you know that money is quickly followed by control.

According to an article in Forbes by American economist Richard Vedder, there is only one school that takes the above logic seriously enough to reject all government aid: Hillsdale College. Granted, Hillsdale may have other motivations, but have we reached the same conclusion? This partly depends on whether you see the government as a kind of international sex offender (like Epstein) which should be condemned and contained or as a kind of parent who you’re hoping will pay for your wedding.

Sources: The New Yorker, The New York Times Forbes