UofL and Berea most eco-friendly Ky. schools

By Andy Mead - amead@herald-leader.com

What's Kentucky's greenest college?

You might guess Berea College, with its Ecovillage and the newly revamped Boone Tavern, where electric cars get preferred parking.

You would be only half right.

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Check out stories, blogs, polls and more on our new green page at The GreenSpot.
Find it on the Web
To see how colleges in Kentucky and across the nation ranked in the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, go to www.greenreportcard.org.

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Published May 20, 2006: Berea College celebrates 150 years
Published May 20, 2006: Berea College celebrates 150 years

BEREA -- Albertina Niilo and her family spent nine years in exile from their home in Nambia, living in three countries as they fled persecution and death.
That was why Niilo was so thrilled to learn about the history of Kentucky's Berea College, built on land owned by famed Madison County abolitionist Cassius Clay when it was founded in 1855 by the Rev. John G. Fee, who later was forced to flee Berea until after the Civil War. The school is known as the South's first interracial college.
"Finding out that someone here was against slavery meant a great deal to me," said Niilo, 36, who discovered the school on the Internet. "Some countries make you feel like a foreigner but that didn't happen here."
Education notes
Education notes

Awards/Scholarships
■ Berea College is one of the country's most environmentally responsible colleges according to The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com). The nationally known education services company selected Berea for inclusion in a resource it has created for college applicants, The Princeton Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges .
Berea was cited for "a commitment to sustainability on all levels" that most recently includes being named a 2009 Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for its tree care and groundskeeping, which is 80 percent organic. Other accomplishments are more than $100 million worth of campus renovations using "green" building standards, including energy-related retrofitting of more than half of the buildings on campus; the Ecovillage, Berea's residential and learning complex where student families learn and practice sustainable living; sustainability-focused academic programs in several departments, and Berea's Local Foods Initiative, among others.
Education notes
Education notes

Awards/Honors
■ Tim Cahill, longtime coach of the Model Laboratory School, Arlington and the Colonel Aquatic swimming teams, has been named by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association as its 2010 National Coach of the Year.
Cahill, who has coached the Model and Arlington teams for the past 30 years and Colonel Aquatics for the past 10 years, was recognized for his longevity, record, championships, previous awards and service to the coaching profession and student-athletes.
Education notes
Education notes

Scholarships/Honors
■ Berea College students received awards and scholarships this spring totaling more than $100,000 for outstanding achievement in Berea's academic, labor and service programs for the 2009-10 academic year. Six of those honored were from Lexington:
■ Jessica Ammons received the Beldon Graduate School Fellowship from the education department and the Elizabeth D. Gilbert Fellowship in Library Science for graduate study in the field.
Herald-Leader writer among Governor's Award recipients
Herald-Leader writer among Governor's Award recipients

Herald-Leader culture writer Rich Copley has received the Media Award from the 2010 Governor's Awards in the Arts, the state's highest honor in the arts.
He joins winners in eight other categories, including a pioneer in glass art and a beloved television, film and stage actress.
The Media Award honors a Kentucky journalist or media organization that has outstanding commitment to bringing the arts to the attention of the public.

Berea College and the University of Louisville receive a B+ on a new green report card for colleges that will be released Wednesday.

The College Sustainability Report Card 2010 gives the University of Kentucky a B-. The only other Kentucky college included in the survey was Centre College, which got a C.

The rankings, published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, includes information on 332 schools.

The grading scale was tough. No school scored better than an A-, and the only school in the Southeast to make that grade was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Schools were surveyed in nine categories: administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green buildings, transportation, student involvement, endowment transparency, shareholder engagement and investment priorities.

The idea is to provide online help for potential students who want information about a college's commitment to the environment.

Overall, schools became greener in the last year, despite sharp investment losses and higher energy costs, the institute said.

This is the fourth year of the green rankings. Among the four Kentucky schools, only Centre did not improve its grade from last year.

Centre officials expressed surprise at the grade.

"It's like they've missed everything to do with our new buildings," several of which are or will be certified for meeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards from the U.S. Green Building Council, said John Cuny, the school's vice president for finance.

Centre did receive an "A" for buildings but fell short in other areas, including how it deals with proxy voting on environmental, social and governance issues.