The proposed Western Gateway project ignores our current global climate and biodiversity crises and is not in line with our University’s sustainability vision or our climate action goals. It is strongly discordant with our existing research and teaching activities focused on mitigating climate change, stemming biodiversity declines, and promoting sustainable actions and policies. For example, we have faculty working in numerous countries to mitigate deforestation globally. Here on our campus, we should be leading by example instead of destroying our own local forests. The proposed project would also be in direct contradiction to the University’s plan to increase the net acreage of tree canopy on campus by planting at least 100 new saplings each year. Instead, this project would destroy >1,000 large, well-established trees in a matter of days. More generally, this project is at odds with your vision laid out in your Earth Day address in which you stated:

“We must continue our academic leadership in research, education and service relative to climate science, sustainability and environmental stewardship of our natural resources…I challenge our faculty to become leaders in developing solutions to one of the grand challenges of our time…We all must become climate ambassadors.”
 
Preserving Guilford Woods would have diverse benefits for the University and surrounding communities. The site offers a natural living classroom for students and field sites for research. More broadly, it provides opportunities for nature engagement and promoting mental health for our campus community, as well as opportunities for environmental stewardship activities and connections with surrounding communities. The forest and stream provide important ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, stormwater management, and mitigation of heat island effects, and represent important habitat that sustains local biodiversity.

For all of these reasons, we urge you to pursue solutions for graduate housing that will expand, rather than tarnish, our reputation for excellence, innovation, and leadership in sustainability. We ask you to stop the planned sale of Guilford Woods and instead preserve this site for its irreplaceable and diverse academic and non-academic benefits to our campus community. To provide the campus with much needed affordable graduate housing, we hope you will launch a comprehensive evaluation of alternative sites for this housing, develop a call for proposals defined by campus goals for genuine sustainable development, and engage state officials and campus experts to identify sustainable and financially viable solutions to advance graduate housing. 
 
Sincerely,
(> 465 Faculty/Staff Signees)