ABSTRACT
In the spring of 2001, two students at Connecticut College in the northeastern United States circulated an ambitious petition. Concerned about the school’s emissions of harmful air pollutants, they urged their classmates to support a voluntary hike in student activity fees to fund the university’s membership in a local renewable energy cooperative. More than three quarters of the students backed the proposal, and it won unanimous support from both the student government and the Board of Trustees. Although the coop closed down a year later, the seeds for the transition had been planted. By January 2003, Connecticut College was meeting 22 percent of its electricity needs from renewable wind energy—the largest share of energy obtained this way by a U.S. college or university. 1
