Place: A MODEL OF INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

The University will expand opportunities for students to study the environment, human geography, and history of the University’s 13,000-acre Domain and surrounding communities. The University is uniquely situated to mentor students in environmental studies and sustainability through field research on the Domain. In addition, the University will develop curricular and co-curricular offerings for students to learn how community partners seek to address environmental regeneration and environmental justice.

The University will make Sewanee a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable community with more affordable housing options and safe transportation networks, and improved amenities will help attract prospective students and employees, even those who choose not to live in Sewanee. Such an approach to Village development will facilitate connections between the study of sustainability and our lived community. Purposeful development of the Village will foster the relationships that students have with faculty, staff, and community mentors, which are a hallmark of student education at the University of the South.

The University will align its operations with environmental commitments to model sustainability in practice. These efforts will take many forms, but reducing the University’s carbon footprint and developing climate accountability plans will provide students hands-on opportunities to analyze and contribute to our sustainability efforts.

As Eudora Welty wrote, “One place understood helps us understand all places better.” The University will develop its curriculum so that every department provides students with opportunities to engage with the natural environment, history, and communities of Sewanee and neighboring counties. Studying Sewanee will be used as a way of knowing ourselves and our challenges so that we can understand others and their challenges.