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History
May of 2004 marked the official launch of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities as an intercollegiate association established to more fully engage its member institutions in the region’s environment.
The inaugural conference of the Consortium, Higher Education and the Hudson River Valley: Meeting the Environmental Challenge, was held on February 27-28, 2004, and included an address by Governor George Pataki who called on higher education to bring together its unique body of talent, skills, and resources in a collaborative effort that would set a new direction for environmental education. Congresswoman Nita Lowey also endorsed the idea of a consortium and expressed to the attendees, “As world-class professors in the Hudson Valley, you have immeasurably improved our understanding and awareness of the river’s historical and natural resources. We must continue to channel this energy and intellectual capital in developing innovative strategies to protect the River. The Hudson must be our living laboratory.” At the close of the conference, 120 participants from 29 colleges and universities endorsed by acclamation the formation of a Hudson Valley environmental consortium.
Today, the Consortium is comprised of 50 institutions of higher education in the Hudson River Region, and has over 300 individual members.
Mission
The mission of the Consortium is to help shape the future of the regional and global environment through collaboration, education, and research. The Consortium facilitates intensive cooperation among its regional colleges and universities, and organizes inter-institutional collaboration among faculty. By channeling this extraordinary bank of intellect, talent and activism into innovative education and public service, the Consortium advances knowledge and understanding of the Hudson River Valley and beyond.
Programmatic Goals
The Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities recognizes that to fully understand and appreciate the natural world and its relationship to civilization, many areas of knowledge must be contemplated. In accordance with this fundamental canon, the Consortium has adopted interdisciplinary study as its guiding principle and priority.
The seven programmatic task forces of the Consortium utilize the Hudson watershed as an extended laboratory and classroom for multi-institutional cooperative regional field studies, student enrichment, curricular collaborations, interdisciplinary research, faculty development, campus greening, and PreK-12 outreach.
Governance
The Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities is managed by a Steering Committee and Consortium Director. The Steering Committee is responsible for the overall functioning and governance of the Consortium while the Director provides leadership by implementing the policies, activities, and work plans of the Consortium. The Director works with the Steering Committee and Consortium members to identify and develop programmatic initiatives and collaborations.
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| Supporting Institutions |
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The Consortium is headquartered at Pace University with Pace Academy for the Environment serving as the Consortium’s secretariat. In August 2002, the Pace Academy for the Environment was launched under President David A. Caputo’s office with a mission to |
| use the university’s unique role in human affairs to foster policies, practices and ideas that sustain a mutually enhancing relationship between nature and society. To further its mission, the Pace Academy conceptualized a regional consortium of colleges and universities and organized the February 2004 inaugural conference. |
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The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries is an important partner in fostering the goals of the Consortium by providing a central resource for multidisciplinary research, collaboration, and dissemination of information. It also gives financial support to the Consortium for |
| programming. The mission of the Institute is to create a global center for interdisciplinary research, policy-making and education regarding rivers, estuaries and their connection with society. This collaboration between the Beacon Institute and the Environmental Consortium forges new ground with a joint vision for the region and its environment, and synergistic capacity to work together towards it realization. |
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"There are obviously two educations.
One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live." |
| James Truslow Adams (1878-1949) |
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