Last year students in Maryland won significant clean energy victories at their universities as part of the first year of the Campus Climate Challenge. However, with all of their successes on their individual campuses the students were hitting some road blocks with institutional policy for the entire University System of Maryland (USM). So, empowered by their past victories they had a great idea: why not get all of the USM schools to band together in one big grassroots coalition and push for one big comprehensive policy? It just seemed crazy enough to work.

So, on October 5^th-7^th these students planned the first ever USM Student State Summit to address the climate crisis. Students from across Maryland converged at Towson University for this big event. Over 30 students from 8 of the 11 USM institutions came together to hold activist skills trainings, strategize, and plan their campaign.

All of their labor paid off when on Saturday October 6th at 8:48PM the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) was born! From the very start the MSCC has some ambitious goals and they are asking the state of Maryland to rise to the challenge. Their inaugural campaign is to make the entire University System of Maryland carbon neutral. Which means they want to neutralize the USM’s impact on climate change by reducing all possible emissions through energy efficiency, LEED certified buildings, and have all remaining energy use provided by clean energy sources. Their catchy campaign slogan: “Invest in our future: Make carbon neutrality a Maryland reality” is already taking off.

To realize this impressive mission they have set ambitious goals to get all 15 institutions in the USM to send endorsement letters to the Board of Regents and collect a total of 13,000 petition signatures!

Their efforts are already gaining notoriety from the USM Chancellor Kirwin who said that he is “dazzled” by the dedication and coordination of the student campaign. On December 14^th MSCC will make their big presentation to the Board of Regents to urge them to pass a policy for carbon neutrality. (The USM is the 13^th largest university system in the world and if the policy passes it will be the second system in the nation, following California, to have such a comprehensive policy).

Last week, the Maryland Student Climate Coalition hit the ground running and launched their campaign in a joint press conference with the Sierra Club of Maryland. On an unnatural and blisteringly hot October day they gathered in Federal Hill Park in Baltimore and unveiled their newly formed coalition to the press and the public. Read the coverage in the Baltimore Examiner and the Baltimore Sun Blog. Congratulations MSCC!

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