The Lehigh Student Senate passed a bill on Feb. 4 in collaboration with the Lehigh United Nations Partnership Office to implement the United Nations’ sustainable development goals on campus.
Bill Hunter, director of the UN Partnership, said Lehigh has been partnering with the UN for 20 years. This bill establishes Lehigh as one of the first universities in the nation to formally commit to integrating these goals into campus life, Hunter said.
Adopted by all 193 UN member countries in 2015, he said the 17 initiatives address global challenges such as poverty, hunger and inequality, with a goal of being solved by 2030.
Hunter said the goals have already made an impact on campus, as clubs prioritize the initiatives without having labels for them, but the bill will officially integrate them into campus life.
“Students and faculty were already very involved in helping to solve the UN sustainable development goals,” he said. “We just had never named it, claimed it or proclaimed it.”
Hunter said he collaborated directly with the Student Senate to draft the bill.
“Several senators recognized that the (sustainable development goals) are a global problem but also a local problem, so they drafted the resolution,” he said.
Nix Huang, vice president of internal affairs of the Student Senate and one of the bill’s authors, said the partnership between the UN and the Student Senate will benefit the student body.
Huang said the bill forms a committee that encourages clubs on campus to align their mission with one or two of the sustainable development goals.
“I think it makes sense to have this partnership and to have this collaboration between the two groups on campus that want to promote community awareness about global challenges in the student population,” Huang said.
The bill passed unanimously, with all 49 student senators voting in favor. Following the vote, only positive feedback was shared.
Huang said the bill creates a trial committee within the Student Senate that will be permanently established if successful after this semester.
She said the committee will work to align Lehigh’s community, clubs and organizations with sustainable development goals by encouraging them to incorporate the goals into their events. The committee will also work to educate students about the purpose of the sustainable development goals.
Huang said the main goal of the committee is to promote the sustainable development goals through information sessions, workshops and events. She will serve as the interim chair of the committee during its first semester.
Senators from any existing committee can join the sustainable development goals committee.
Drew Smith, a senator on the allocations committee, said he thinks the sustainable development goals committee will encourage more intentional direction with activities on campus.
“I think the expectations of the committee will be outlined upon further exploration, but I don’t see any reason for me not to be interested,” Smith said.
Hunter said he believes the goals represent initiatives everyone should be willing to align with and fight for.
Making everyone on campus aware of sustainable development goals and demonstrating to the community how one can get involved is the path to proactively bringing the initiatives to campus, he said.
According to the 2024 sustainable development goals report, 17% of the targets are on track to be met by 2030, but Hunter said he believes society is behind.
“(Generation Z) needs to step up into leadership roles, or there will be significant challenges,” Hunter said. “This bill is a step in the right direction.”
The Student Senate held their first sustainable development goals committee meeting on Feb. 11 to discuss a more in-depth implementation plan.
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