by Miriam Bamberger
Special Projects Writer

Courtesy University Archives EPA administrator Carol Browner speaks at GW in 1994.

There was a period in the 1990s when "being green" was all the rage, and families, universities and the government wanted to jump on the environmental bandwagon.

GW was one of the first American universities to join the trend, as University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner signed an agreement to create the first "Green University" on Dec. 12, 1994.

Trachtenberg originally considered the agreement because of the economic and business benefits it promised to bring the University. With the signing of the 1994 agreement, GW became the only university at that time that was completely committed to being "green" ­ at least on paper.

The signing of the agreement was met with surprisingly little enthusiasm from the student population. The Hatchet didnšt cover the signing, since it took place during winter break, nor did it fully address the issue when classes started again in January. The only direct mention made of the GW-EPA agreement in The Hatchet was in a Jan. 16, 1995, editorial titled "New Year's Resolutions for GW."

"The Environmental Task Force (a committee of GW students, faculty and administrators created to oversee GW's transition to being green) should promise to produce some tangible results in its pursuit to make GW a 'Green University.' A few new recycling bins and some fluorescent lights are not enough. The University needs to sell stubborn students on the merits of recycling if we wish to succeed,˛ the editorial board wrote.

For the most part, the student body seemed cynical about the Green University plan, mostly because past attempts at recycling that had seemed to be working ­ with recycling bins on each floor in residence halls and classroom buildings ­ had been condemned as failures.