Walter Simpson, former director of UB Green, was a man on a mission: save the environment while greatly easing pressure on the university's budget. UB Green, a group focused on making students more environmentally aware, has been waiting for the administration to replace their director since his retirement, which happened over a year ago.
"Walter Simpson created his own job," said Danielle Peters, activist vice president of the Environmental Network. "When he left, UB Green went from having three employees to two."
According to Peters, UB Green's lack of staff is a major problem because the group employs the only people at the university who are specifically hired to spread awareness to the UB community about the importance of environmental conservation.
Simpson told The Spectrum in 2008 that his retirement was due, in part, to how difficult UB made it for him to enact his plans.
"While other schools are accelerating their green campus programs, I have found it increasingly difficult to make environmental progress at UB because of what might be described as ambivalence towards our program by UB's administration," Simpson said in the April interview.
Before Simpson's retirement, President John B. Simpson signed an agreement in conjunction with the American Collegiate Presidents Climate Committee in which he promised that UB's campus would be carbon neutral by 2020. According to Peters, Walter Simpson was deeply involved in the process of making that promise come true.
UB's administration created the National Search Committee to find a replacement for Walter Simpson, and said that his position would be filled by the fall 2008 semester. According to Rafael Rosenbaum, academic vice president of the Environmental Network, a nation-wide hiring freeze was one of the administration's reasons for not finding a replacement.
Walter Simpson, who, according to Rosenbaum, was UB's only chief energy officer, saved the university millions of dollars in energy costs by searching buildings and facilities and determining where energy was being used unnecessarily.
"It is vital that UB Green has a motivated leader," Rosenbaum said. "Not having Walter Simpson is a huge detriment to energy conservation and environmental education at this university."
A year after his absence, the Environmental Network is hoping to cooperate with the administration to see his position filled.
"If they are not going to hire someone, we aren't going to push them," Rosenbaum said. "We don't want to battle with the administration more than necessary; we want to work with them."
According to Rosenbaum, Walter Simpson was an expert at his job, and recently received a SUNY Chancellor's Award for his ideas for energy conservation, during his time as UB Green's director.
According to Peters, Simpson inspired students to become involved in conservation and continues to update the Environmental Network about local issues.
"There is definitely a passion that has left with him," Peters said. "If they do fill his position, I just hope that the person who replaces him is as passionate about their work as he was."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
