Operation Sunshine School by Willow and Evan

 The problem we wanted to tackle was the use of fossil fuels at Eckerd. We only have one building with solar panels at Eckerd, despite the fact that Eckerd boasts its ambition to be a more sustainable campus. As we began our project and spoke to community members who have been working for the same cause, we learned that there is administrative support for more solar, the money just needs to be allocated for it. We found our place in this project as the fuel to reignite a fire that has been dwindling for too long. Given the insight from some knowledgeable and involved faculty, we decided that we want to try to raise awareness amongst the student body to show that more solar energy should be at the forefront of the strategic planning for the school.

    To gain as much traction as possible, we took to Instagram in an attempt to gain a social media following for our campaign to bring more solar panels to our campus. We decided to use social media as our primary medium of communication as recommended by Stoknes in his text titled “What We Think about When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming.” Stoknes describes how social media can be used to create and spread new social norms. We established the social norm of widespread desire for more solar panels on campus and will hope to continue this spread to the administration and faculty. 

Documentation of the student support for the solar project at Eckerd was crucial to the success of our project and for there to be an opportunity to show President Fernandez what should be prioritized during the planning of investments and campus development. We were able to collect more than 50 photo petitions of students that enthusiastically supported our campaign to bring more solar energy to campus as well as a handful of written depositions. These photo petitions are on display on the campaign’s Instagram page which was able to gain 70 followers in a relatively short period of time. We are incredibly grateful for how the student body has come to support our campaign and cannot wait to show President Fernandez what it would be to Eckerd Students if we were to divest from fossil fuels and shift towards an entirely solar-powered campus.

Student Voices

“Coming to Eckerd, I was excited about going to an environmentally friendly school, but during my four years here I was really disappointed in the overall lack of improvements being made in terms of sustainability.”

Max Goldman ‘21

“Having solar panels that feed into the electric grid on campus would be a
fantastic way to improve sustainability here at Eckerd College.”

Sean Tallman ‘22