FROSTBURG — Numerous programs already taking place at Frostburg State University complement the new system-wide Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative launched by University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan.

“I give Chancellor Kirwan my full support in this system-wide sustainability initiative. I believe we in higher education have a responsibility to lead the way in this issue, one which will be even more critical for our students than it is to us,” said FSU President Jonathan Gibralter.

“I think that David Hales, the president of the College of the Atlantic, put it very well when he said, ‘If higher education is not relevant to solving the crisis of global warming, it is not relevant, period.’ ”

Gibralter serves on the Governor’s Climate Task Force as a member of the Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Mitigation Working Group and is a charter member of the leadership circle of the American College and University Presidents Climate Committee.

He recently told the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on Health, Education and Human Resources and the House Appropriations Committee on Education and Economic Development of FSU’s efforts with research and work-force development through two projects.

“First is our WISE project, which studies the effectiveness of residential-scale wind turbines and solar arrays and will soon be training individuals to install them,” said Gibralter. “Second is our major in ethnobotany, the only one in the continental United States, which is working to study our region’s cultural legacy and ways to tap the potential of our natural resources.”

A number of projects are taking place as part of FSU’s Learning Green, Living Green Sustainability Initiative.

“To date, 67 members of the FSU community — faculty, staff and students — have volunteered to take on tasks as diverse as establishing a recycling program, researching alternative energy sources and forging community partnerships,” said Jim Limbaugh, associate president for institutional effectiveness and chair of the sustainability initiative’s committee.

Members of the Sierra Student Coalition have organized two campus-wide blackout days, when campus users are encouraged to turn off lights and other equipment for an hour, and FSU participated in Focus the Nation, a national teach-in about climate change.

FSU is participating in a pilot sustainability study of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and in Recyclemania, a 10-week national recycling competition for institutions of higher learning.

“Our universities have long been on the forefront of environmental education, research and policy-making,” Kirwan said. “The initiative will utilize USM’s strengths in these areas to establish sustainable and energy- efficient practices across all of our campuses. We will also work to strengthen curricular offerings and opportunities for research and collaboration in environmental science, policy and sustainable technologies.”

Kirwan implemented two other system-wide initiatives: closing the college retention and graduation gap for minority and under-served students and fostering the state’s global economic competitiveness by increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and math teachers and graduates.

For more information about the USM sustainability initiative, log onto www.usmd.edu/usm/sustainability. For more information on FSU’s Learning Green, Living Green initiative, log onto www.frostburg.edu/lglg/.

Contact Jennifer Raley at jraley@times-news.com.