Frugality stressed at Unity

UNITY -- It seems like an old-fashioned word today, a featured speaker at Mitchell S. Thomashow's inauguration as Unity College president said Sunday.

Tom Wessels, a longtime colleague with Thomashow of the Antioch University New England faculty, stressed the importance of frugality in this consumptive American society. Both Thomashow and Wessels referenced the old-fashioned value during the ceremony at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts.

Thomashow, in fact, thanked Wessels for mentioning the seldom-used word.

"This college models itself on frugal sustainability, with the emphasis on conservation and a sustainable campus," said Thomashow. "Let's build a college that will be here for hundreds of years to come."

Thomashow became the ninth Unity College president last July. David Glenn-Lewin stepped down in 2005, and Mark Lapping served as interim president until Thomashow took the reins, following 30 years at Antioch.

Staff photo by David Leaming

University of Maine in Farmington President Dr. Theodora Kalikow, left,

congratulates Unity College President Dr. Mitchell S. Thomashow following his inauguration on Sunday.

The college held off on Thomashow's inauguration so that it could coincide with its annual Earth Week observances. Trustee Robert Pollis presented him with the presidential walking staff, created of earth materials in 2001.

Thomashow had mentioned sustainability, with an emphasis on conservation, as one of five prevailing Unity College virtues.

The others:

n Broadening the constituency for conservation, to include all walks of life from "back-to-landers" to hunters.

n Serving the "underserved" student, who might have financial needs or might need something other than a traditional academic setting.

n An outdoor, hands-on ecological experience of world-based learning.

n Engagement with the regional community. From arts to recreation, the college will host events at the Centre for the Performing Arts, host nature walks and Frisbee golf at the Field of Dreams and offer campus tours. Thomashow already is a member of the Unity Barn Raisers, a community-betterment organization.

"Our mission is way bigger than this college," he said.

Wessels, a founding member of Antioch's master's program in conservation biology, had said that frugality has a solid basis in world religions and, until recent decades, United States history.

"We have gone from a frugal to a consumptive society," Wessels said. "Individual consumption tends to isolate people. It increases the rates of depression and anxiety, to go along with excess consumption."

Wessels also lamented the emphasis on the individual in today's society.

"That's the message we get in our culture," he said. "I, me, my entitlement -- it's all about the individual. We can't just work for the environment. We've got to change our cultural values. In terms of the environmental movement today, we have got to go much further."

Wessels praised the Step It Up campaign to reduce greenhouse gases, which featured 37 rallies in Maine alone last weekend.

"This is probably one of the biggest environmental developments since the initiation of Earth Day 37 years ago," he said. "It's quite a remarkable time in this country's history."

Unity College, Wessels reminded the audience, has an obligation.

"We have got to re-story, and I think the environmental movement is the one to do it," he said. "This college has already been branded with the name 'Unity.' You can't run away from that. You have to do it."