Lawrence University in Appleton has become the home of CCL Wisconsin’s first campus chapter!
When five Lawrence University students attended the October 2024 CCL Great Lakes Regional Conference in Rockford, Illinois, they met student leaders from the very active campus chapter at the University of Michigan. Within four months, Lawrence University CCL became an official organization on campus. With a staff advisor who was a CCL member and the mentoring of CCL National’s Climate Fellow, Jun Gesteland, the new Lawrence University campus chapter has already been very active.
The Lawrence University CCL chapter has hosted an info session, had four monthly chapter meetings, and gave a talk at the University’s Greenfire Presentation Night to spread awareness about their group and to start collaborating with other campus organizations. They also met with students from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, who worked with their own student CCL chapter to start a CFD (carbon fee & dividend) Movement. The Lawrence CCL chapter leadership team members has attended national CCL monthly Higher Education Action Team and Campus Leader Strategy calls, as well as learned about strategies for making a difference as undergraduate students.
“Our generation is building this huge momentum to address the climate crisis, and I’m so excited to be a part of it,” stated the new chapter leader Emelyn Beaster, “At Lawrence, there are so many students who are passionate about solutions to everything from global warming to food insecurity. CCL campus chapters can help create a space for all of us to work together and do meaningful climate action!”
Going forward, several chapter members would like to attend the CCL Summer Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, DC, in July. However, it will be necessary to do some major fundraising for these trips, and they are working hard on that at this time.
In addition to raising money to get to the CCL Summer Conference and Lobby Day, some of their other goals include: establishing a weekly sustainability column in the college’s Lawrentian publication; possibly doing some state lobbying; planning for spring-term collaboration with Greenfire; and working with the LU Sustainability Coordinator to contribute to the current discussions on a 5/10/20 year plan for Lawrence sustainability.
Citizens' Climate Lobby Wisconsin 