STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Students and Alumni
Take the Lead on Stan State’s Sustainability Efforts by Christopher Correa Stanislaus State students are continuing to lead the way when it comes to environmental sustainability on campus and in the surrounding communities. Since the creation of the student organizations Climate Action Now! and the Eco Warriors, members have been hard at work brainstorming new ideas to use cleaner energy, minimize waste and spread awareness of some of the challenges that the planet is currently facing. The idea of Climate Action Now!, also known as CAN!, began in 2018 by alumnus Kenneth Boettcher while he was pursuing his master’s in history. After the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced a climate crisis in October of that year, Boettcher helped organize the Climate Crisis Symposium at Stan State. The event featured presentations from 10 different Stan State professors and more than 300 campus community members attended the event. Boettcher created Climate Action Now! based on the high level of interest generated at the event.
STA N M AGA Z I N E
Though he graduated in May 2021, Boettcher remains heavily involved. “Student organizations within the California State University can have both student and non-student members, per our CSU-approved constitutions,” Boettcher explained. “I’m still a member with a voice.” CAN! is now being led by President Vivian Aguilar, who is a senior doublemajoring in psychology and English. “We want to help build a movement to push for the vast changes in society needed to begin rebuilding human society and the Earth’s plant and animal life that our commodity-based society has poisoned or destroyed,” Aguilar said. “We advocate for the
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IPCC’s recommendations on the crisis: 45 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and 100 percent reduction by 2050.” Aguliar believes that “commodity culture” has produced a poisonous world and that those responsible are not being held accountable. “The scientific consensus today shows we are still barreling toward the brink of planetary-wide extinction for most species on Earth, including ourselves,” Aguilar continued. “CAN! tries to stimulate long-term thinking about how to build a society that brings us into harmony with the rest of nature and makes real sustainability possible for generations ahead.”
