The UCSC Climate Coalition (393 students/faculty/staff and growing), is heartened by the climate change focus of the strategic planning process. We consider every category that the SPCC has identified for improvement (in teaching, research, and campus operations) to be worthy of attention. Each category deserves many specific recommendations, some easier, some more difficult to develop, enact, and assess.

In the near term, the Climate Coalition respectfully submits FOUR SPECIFIC PRIORITIES that we feel meet well the Chancellor’s charge to “improve the experiences of our students, staff and faculty”; to “advance our global and regional impact”; and to “strengthen the university in our efforts to lead at the intersection of innovation and social justice” with clear “metrics by which success will be measured”:

I. BAN FOSSIL FUEL FUNDING OF FACULTY RESEARCH and university projects. Partnering with the fossil fuel industry in any capacity represents an inherent conflict of interest with UCSC’s core academic and social values, compromising institutional integrity, academic freedom, and our ability to respond effectively to the climate crisis;

II. DISSOCIATE UCSC’s FINANCES WITH ANY COMMERCIAL BANKS who lend to or underwrite the debt of the fossil fuel industry and their allies – financing that is not only accelerating the climate crisis but deepening environmental inequities, contrary to UCSC’s acknowledged support for climate justice;

III. SYSTEMATICALLY DEEPEN UCSC’S CLIMATE EDUCATION. Many students choose UCSC for the beauty of the campus and its image as an environmentally-friendly school. To cement UCSC’s reputation as the university that prioritizes environment, sustainability, climate change, climate justice, and the well-being of all on earth, we recommend that the university

A. build on the strength of its current climate curriculum by immediately publicizing and distributing to all college and departmental advisors an updated-quarterly list of all UCSC climate-related courses and sequences;

B. establish a “climate basics” super GE enabling every UCSC student to learn about the greatest crisis our world has ever faced, with modules on
-- climate science basics (including global and local effects),
-- the societal drivers of climate change
-- the unequal impacts of climate change, and the need for climate justice,
-- societal and psychological (climate anxiety) responses,
-- potential solutions: social change/activism, careers in green tech/green engineering/ environmental policymaking, climate opportunities in every field.

C. offer undergraduates several options for “deeper” exposure to climate change:
-- formal climate tracks for majors in as many departments as appropriate
-- an interdisciplinary major
-- an interdisciplinary minor

IV. IMPROVE ON-CAMPUS TRANSPORTATION to decrease Scope 3 (transportation) emissions while making campus more accessible to students and adhering to TAPS’ mission statement of making campus transportation more sustainable. We recommend that the university

A. acquire for the university fleet from 2024 forward ONLY zero-emission and hybrid vehicles; correspondingly, expand the university’s EV charging infrastructure. Every ICE vehicle that the university purchases now only prolongs UCSC’s dependence on fossil fuels and will be a stranded asset in the years to come.

B. Strengthen the functionality of loop buses by
-- Establishing a real time, accessible, user- and mobile-phone friendly loop bus tracking system,
-- Increasing loop bus service, especially around class times, and
-- Establishing predictable headways.

C. Encourage bicycling by
-- Creating protected bike lanes on
• Coolidge Dr (High/Bay - Hagar Dr),
• Coolidge Dr (end of McLaughlin to base of campus)
• Hagar Drive (McLaughlin to the base of campus), and
• Empire Grade (so that west as well as east campus is bike-protected)
-- Building bike infrastructure (such as signage, traffic calming, and sharrows) where protected bike lanes are not possible,
-- Running the bike shuttle all day, and
-- Partnering with the City of Santa Cruz to establish a more unified, less-segmented bike path network.

D. Deeply discount carpool permits.

As the Aug ‘20 fires and the Jan ‘23 storms demonstrate, UCSC may well be, at least among the UCs, the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” on the forefront of climate change; our students, faculty, staff, and the campus itself have all already felt the impacts of a changing climate. We should do all we can, as fast as we can, for the good of our own community…but we should also do all we can, as fast as we can, because these priorities and innovations are deeply rooted in UCSC’s environmental and social justice mission, and they could well be key for UCSC’s continued preeminence going forward.

Enacting these specific proposals will improve the lives of its students, elevate the university’s reputation, and place UCSC among the nation’s academic leaders in responding to the climate threat and truly “Leading the Change” into a sustainable future.

Respectfully submitted,

— The UCSC Climate Coalition and its undersigned supporters

The full (slightly longer) text of this petition with links and footnotes is available at bit.ly/SPCCpetition