LTE: A Call To Action For Fairfield U.’s Environmental Studies Faculty

The following Letter to the Editor is an open letter to Environmental Studies faculty of Fairfield University from Fairfield resident Ashley Scholhamer:

To: Professors L. Kraig Steffen, Peter Bayers, David Downie, Dina Franceschi, Shannon Kelley, Jennifer Klug, Scott Lacy, Robert Nazarian, Tod Osier, Elizabeth Petrino, William Vasquez-Mazariegos, Brian Walker, Ashley Byun, Shahrokh Etemad, Shannon Gerry, Debra M. Strauss, and David R. Winn

As you may well know, Fairfield University markets beach living to recruit prospective students, and groups of Fairfield University seniors rent beachfront homes each year. Despite being a place of higher learning with an Environmental Studies program, Fairfield University’s students regularly mistreat Fairfield’s beaches and the interconnected ocean and marsh ecosystems. Reckless parties repeatedly result in shamefully sullied beaches, with lasting environmental repercussions. The most recent of these events, SantaCon, was referred to by our town’s officials as an “environmental disaster.” I am asking you to acknowledge the damage done by these events and join me in demanding change. Trashed beaches should not be Fairfield University's environmental legacy.

All of us, as stewards of this planet, must treat our oceans with the respect due to them as an invaluable, shared resource. You in particular, as Professors with environmental expertise, understand the damage inflicted by dumping garbage into our oceans. You also understand how woefully inadequate Fairfield University’s delayed beach cleanup attempts are. Efforts at mitigation that arrive the next day will never retrieve plastics already washed out by the tides and weather. The only solution here is prevention.

Your department’s own webpage states it best: “Indeed, as concern for the environment and its links to economic prosperity and human health continue to grow, so too does the need for informed citizens to provide leadership on these issues.” As academic leaders in Environmental Studies, you have a platform to demand that the University upholds this mission. Fairfield University clearly needs your guidance. As it stands, your institution benefits from advertising beach living for students without requiring the responsibility seaside living entails.
Below are tangible actions your department could take:

1. The tone is set at the top. Petition University leadership to condemn destructive events hosted by Fairfield University students, such as the recent SantaCon, and issue a public apology.
2. Advocate for SantaCon and other annual Fairfield University student tradition parties (such as White Party, Oktoberfest, and ShamJam to name a few) to be sanctioned and hosted responsibly by the University.
3. Advocate to hold student hosts of events with environmental consequences responsible under Fairfield University’s code of conduct.

Your Program Overview states: “At Fairfield, you can become part of the solution.” Please live up to this statement.

Sincerely,

Ashley Scholhamer
Fairfield, CT