CU Names Mesa to Green Post

The office of Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin announced yesterday the appointment of Nilda Mesa as the University's first environmental stewardship coordinator. With the new hire, Columbia joins its peers including Brown, Duke, and the University of Michigan in charging one administrator to oversee its environmental efforts.

A 12-person volunteer search committee composed of administrators and students selected Mesa over the summer from dozens of applicants who applied since the job posting went up last December. Although she will not have a significant budget at her disposal, Mesa will have the authority to "implement practical programs to conserve resources and promote a culture of environmental awareness," according to the press release.

A newcomer to academia, Mesa has already amassed extensive experience with the government. After working for the California attorney general on environmental law enforcement, Mesa served in the Clinton administration as lead legal negotiator on the environmental side agreements to the North American Free Trade Agreement, and with both the US Air Force and the White House Council for Environmental Quality on environmental policy issues.

Six Silberman, SEAS '07, who worked with Housing and Dining over the summer to develop their Eco-Rep program, said that Columbia's decentralized administrative departments could prove to be a challenge for Mesa.

"I do not envy the sustainability coordinator's position, because she's going to have to be really diplomatic," he said.

Director of Housing and Dining Scott Wright said he hoped that the coordinator will plan events to raise awareness of environmental issues on campus, as well as bring others into the process.

Search committee member and Students for Economic and Environmental Justice officer Julie Raskin, CC '08, applauded the decision. She said that institutional support would take some of the burden of working with administrators off their shoulders, as well as help continue progress they've made in the last year-such as pushes to feature local and organic food in campus dining locations and use recycled paper more widely.

She added that the committee was looking for someone who could be encouraging without incurring resentment, since more often initiatives fail not because people oppose them, but because both students and staff have many other priorities.

Raskin called the search process "the best experience I've had at Columbia." She hopes that Mesa, who reports to Kasdin, will be able to relay the concerns of students to senior administration.

"I developed this immense pride in Columbia," she said. "This school is so big and I'm so small. It opened up other parts of the school to me."