LETTER: Drew students challenge university president on potential Drew Forest sale
TO THE EDITOR: We love Drew University and want it to be solvent for many years to come. We think that selling off sections of the forest may solve a short-term funding problem but will destroy the long-term health of the university.
A much better solution is to sell all forested land on campus for a conservation sale. Drew will get the needed funds, as well as the benefit of the forest. A major fund-raising drive should be instituted if the conservation sale can not match the price that would be received for high-density housing.
The Student Government urged for specific information in writing about the sale of the forest, including a map detailing the lands threatened for sale, and more transparency about this sale with students. Instead, President Thomas Schwarz convened a hastily arranged town hall, which was not recorded.
During the town hall, President Schwarz said that there would be trees surrounding the high-density housing that would be built. How could he guarantee this once the land is sold for development? Importantly, a forest is not just a collection of trees. Fragmentation of an old-growth forest for housing would have a terrible impact on the ecosystem.
As the president of an educational institution, we ask President Schwarz, what do you expect students to learn from your approach to a problem? Nature is to be used up and destroyed in this time of climate change and extinction?
In the past, most towns in New Jersey had natural areas. This is increasingly a thing of the past; forests are being cut down and people are increasingly divorced from nature. Being in a uniquely expansive, healthy forest is and will continue to be an increasing draw for students to attend Drew University.
What is President Schwarz modeling in regard to transparency and democracy? That an important decision should be made quickly and top-down regardless of the interests of the stakeholders?
We request President Schwarz to respond to the Student Government’s Feb. 23 resolution requesting information in writing. Please involve stakeholders including faculty, students, alumni, and the community, including the Friends of the Drew Forest, in thinking creatively about how to solve the university’s financial problems.
ERICA COWPER and
MORGAN ZIELINSKI
Editor's note: The writers are seniors at Drew University. Erica Cowper can be reached at ecowper@drew.edu for any questions.
