Part 1: It is one thing to go to college and learn about lofty issues like environmental sustainability. It is quite another to live it. For a hundred years college unions on thousands of campuses have been the ideological laboratories for important social causes from civil rights to world peace. At the University of Vermont, the college union is more than a place to think about the environment, it is a living example of what sustainability looks and feels like. But it is also a place that reflects the culture and ideas of the community in which it resides. Part 2: The College Union is the place on thousands of college campuses where students, faculty and the wider community come together to interact and learn from each other outside the classroom. Don’t think melting pot. That analogy suggested a lot of ingredients churning into one thing. At California State University–Northridge, the union serves as the visionary force that honors each individual and values diversity, braiding together different lives and experiences and then fastening them into a knot through friendships, discussions, and cooperation.
