Jenn Tan

11-21-04

The Talloires Motivation

Stewardship: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability: “life that uses nature without bringing harm to it.” The concept of using resources without endangering their future availability is an ideal that only within the past couple decades has gained support within the collegiate world. The severe need for this principle caused twenty-two university presidents and chancellors to convene in 1990 and sign a declaration pledging to support it and advocate its propagation. Recently this document known as the Talloires Declaration was signed locally by President Warren J. Baker representing California Polytechnic State University, an action which he explained in a speech made on his college’s campus. The purpose of this speech was to reinforce the ideals of stewardship and sustainability in our area and indirectly support the Cal Poly Master Plan as an advocate of them in the community. These goals are in his best interest because if achieved they would rally support for Master Plan projects without resistance from parties uneducated to the ultimately beneficial aims of these plans.

One way President Baker pointed out signing the Talloires Declaration makes the Master Plan indispensable is that many of the goals of the declaration parallel goals found in the Master Plan. He quoted the Master Plan as “striving to strike a balance among several principles that we believe are all essential elements of a comprehensive vision of sustainability,” and listed those values as academic excellence, social justice, economic growth and efficiency and environmental protection. Past successful projects he noted are offering degree programs that promote responsible actions when dealing with the environment, the construction of learning centers and institutions that advise and interact with the government on conservation projects, and promoting sustainability and stewardship through founding EARTH university in Costa Rica to alert the world to stewardship and sustainability. These are good examples of the Master Plan and Talloires Declaration working together as they show the width and breadth of projects the Master Plan has tackled, and present achievements with visible and positive outcome.

These achievements are also well chosen because they are projects that paralleled the ten goals of the Taillores Declaration. Offering degree programs which concentrate on conservation and sustainability is an excellent way to “Increase Awareness of Environmentally Sustainable Development,” “Educate for Environmentally Responsible Citizenship,” and “Foster Environmental Literacy For All” which are goals one, three and four. The Cal Poly Sustainability Initiative is a committee of “faculty, staff, administrators and students” which will “Create an Institutional Culture of Sustainability,” goal number two, and “Practice Institutional Ecology,” goal number five, as well as the number ten goal to “Maintain the Movement.” Goals number six and seven which are to “Involve All Stakeholders” and “Collaborate for Interdisciplinary Approaches” are accomplished through institutes like the Environmental Biotechnology Institute and the Coastal Resources Institute. Finally, the ninth goal to “Broaden Service and Outreach Nationally and Internationally,” is achieved through the creation of EARTH University in Costa Rica. The one goal not yet targeted by the Master Plan is the eighth, which is to “Enhance Capacity of Primary and Secondary Schools.” However, the younger generations who attend these institutions will learn through watching the responsible actions of their elders, and perhaps in the future the Master Plan will incorporate this goal.

President Baker further emphasized the significance of these achievements by charging his speech with emotional appeal. His opening statement was “I’m pleased to join Dean Jones in welcoming you to this convocation on ‘Education for Sustainability,’ a fitting topic for us here at Cal Poly, as we mark Earth Day 2004.” His word choice alludes to importance, as the word “convocation” means an urgent calling together and collaboration. This infers that we are the keepers of nature, and as such must work together to care for it. Later, he refers to the Master Plan as working to enforce principles of a vision of sustainability, which is again a powerful word choice implying the unquestionable morality of the Master Plan as a guardian of these undeniably noble causes. This statement is reinforced at the speech’s conclusion, where he asserts the necessity of these values and the university’s role in applying them, inferring that the university itself is based on morals and the betterment of its students. These emotional stimulators are appropriate as they are present enough to emotionally connect the audience to the solid facts, but do not overpower the logical portion of the speech with exaggerations.

The credibility of this speaker is indisputable because he is the head of an entire university and would not sign a declaration without due deliberation and ample reason. His authority is further increased through the support of several other important figures, including faculty members who are highly educated and experienced in their fields and an author who himself wrote several books, one which specifically focuses on sustainability and education. Lastly, the fact that he cited tangible examples of progress being done in the areas of sustainability and stewardship both locally and globally showed clearly to the audience that his brainchild the Master Plan is an effective and useful endeavor, and proved that he had accomplished what he set out to in the past, indicating that he was fully capable of doing so in the future.

In conclusion, the speech was both eloquent and effective in accomplishing its purposes, which were celebrating the university’s signing of the Talloires Declaration and indirectly encouraging support in the Master Plan. It successfully bonded the concept of sustainability and stewardship being vital to a healthy future with the past and future progressive actions made by the university which affect the environment. By further involving the public in events that have wide reaching effects on the campus and community, President Baker not only accomplished the Talloires and Master Plan goals of promoting general awareness of environmental issues, but also rallied their support of future changes made by the university. This means improvements can be made on the way the college interacts with both the surrounding city and environment with the endorsement of all, which in turn implicates a better and brighter future for Cal Poly and eventually the world.