Getting to Know the CMAP: Union Mobilizing for the Climate (Part 2)

In the Fall of 2019, during a chapel service known as ‘Plant Chapel’, the Eco-Justice Caucus publicly asked Union to declare a climate emergency. The caucus subsequently put their charge into writing, which they submitted to the Board of Trustees on December 9, 2020. 

Ten days later, on December 19, Union’s Board of Trustees officially approved this resolution, and on February 10, 2021, Union officially declares a climate emergency. As part of the declaration of ecological and climate concern, Union resolved to formulate a 10-year Climate Mobilization Action Plan, also known as CMAP.

In the Spring of 2021, a community assembly was convened with the goal of articulating initial policy recommendations for adoption by Union leadership. This community assembly included students, faculty, and community leaders, all who came together asynchronously online on April 5th through April 16th, to discuss the details of the initial proposal. 

On April 23rd, following a panel presentation with expert consultants the day before (Earth Day), the community assembled CMAP was finalized by democratic consent for submission to Union’s executive team. You can read the final version of the CMAP here. This plan, with updates, was then presented in 2022 by leaders of the Eco-Justice Caucus, Ben Stegbauer (MA ‘22) and Suntina Spehar (MA ‘22), to Union’s leadership. You can see their presentation here.

Where are we now, in 2023, three years on? 

This year, the Eco-Justice Caucus will have a CMAP report, presentation, and celebration on Thursday, April 20, 2023. The event, titled Responding to Our Climate Crisis, will be the first public update regarding the CMAP since its inception. 

Throughout the next few days leading up to this next CMAP event, we would like to present to you interviews with students who have been involved in the creation and maintenance of the CMAP. 

In this second interview, we visit with Suntina Spehar and Ben Stegbauer, 2021-2022 Eco-Justice Caucus leaders who presented the CMAP to Union leadership.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNTINA SPEHAR AND BEN STEGBAUER

What is your name, year (or year of graduation, degree and concentration of study? If you have graduated, would you mind sharing what you are doing now?

My name is Suntina Spehar (she/her), and I graduated from UTS in May of 2022. Since then, I have been working in the non-profit sphere with youth programming and outreach in Atlanta, Georgia.

My name is Ben Stegbauer (he/him), and I graduated from UTS in May of 2022. I now live and work at the Catholic Worker in the Lower East Side. 

How did you come to be involved in the CMAP? What were your roles/how did you see your roles in helping to roll out the CMAP?

Suntina: I became involved in April of 2021. I was part of the Eco-Justice Caucus at the time and helped provide feedback on the language and phrasing of the CMAP. There was a forum of folks who met over Zoom, and either approved or provided edits to the document itself. At the start of the 2021-2022 year, I was involved in the creation of an executive summary of the CMAP, and the presentation of the document. Another member of the EJC and I presented the proposal to faculty and administration at UTS.

Ben: I joined the Eco-Justice Caucus at the beginning of the 2020 Fall semester and joined in on meetings about the Climate Emergency Declaration. From this I helped organize the Community Assembly and all associated events (expert panel, etc.), mostly in an emailing everyone role. This all led to the creation of the CMAP, and then the next year we turned it into an executive summary and presented it to differing levels of administration at Union.

After the initial convening of the CMAP in the Spring of 2021, how did work on the CMAP continue throughout 2021-2022?

Suntina: After that initial Spring, the document was about ready to go. The next step was presenting the document for approval and implementation. Whether this is happening on campus now, I am unsure of. I remember being exceedingly, perhaps naïvely, optimistic about how the CMAP could change the functioning of Union, and how the seminary could have a real, positive impact on the surrounding communities (how we could work with communities towards more sustainable functioning, food security, eco-justice, etc). The work throughout 2021-2022 was in preparation for the presentation. We had to make sure it was flawless and digestible, and it was! The whole team did a fantastic job.

Ben: In all senses work on the CMAP slowed down quite a bit throughout the 2021-22 school year. We presented the CMAP to administration, and tried to get some aspects of the CMAP implemented on individual bases (e.g. composting, as I remember most). We struggled to balance the desire for the CMAP to be student-led and the dual reality of students’ capacities being stretched from slowly coming back to in-person school and the fact that we needed administrative approval for any changes. 

What would you like incoming Union students to know about the CMAP? 

Suntina: I would like incoming students to know that the CMAP was a work of love. There are so many voices intertwined in it, and it was meticulously thought out and written. It is a tool of accountability for students, faculty, and the seminary to be mindful of when operating in a space of economic tension and wage disparity, in appreciation of all creation, and in light of an ecological/climate emergency. Further, this document was entirely written and initiated by students at UTS out of passion for climate justice and in protest of unconscious practices that disregard marginalized communities and our home planet.

Ben: I would just like them to know that in theory the Climate Emergency Declaration demands that students be involved in the self-creation of the schools response to the Climate Crisis. It is supposed to be a democratic student-led initiative, and in terms of the creation of the initial CMAP it definitely was. It is a possible avenue for students to get their voices heard, but also could be cited in the creation of things that students want. For example, a covered bike rack is a part of the CMAP, so even if you want something as “simple” as that you can use the CMAP to put pressure on the facilities team. 

How do you foresee Union’s future and/or engagement with our climate emergency?

Suntina: What I *hope* is that Union practices the preaching when it comes to engagement with our climate emergency. Union is an institution committed to justice, and that means there ought to be boots on the ground, in communities, in active conversations, and in solidarity with those who are disproportionately affected by climate change. There is a lot to be said about what can happen once a person exits the walls of our beloved seminary. The work must be done out in the world, not behind brick walls. There are countless opportunities to make changes, no matter how big or small. I see students taking advantage of these opportunities, and doing what they can in correlation with the CMAP.

Ben: It is hard to have much hope about any future or engagement with our climate emergency. I hope that Union can view itself as more situated in the neighborhood of Morningside Heights when it makes decisions involving the climate emergency. Especially when it comes to things like disaster preparedness and simply being a part of a neighborhood that attempts to meet its own needs. How can Union not just be one of the more well-known seminaries in the world, but an institution that is firmly situated in the wants, needs, and dreamings of the people of Morningside Heights and West Harlem? How can Union be something closer to “neighbors” to those that we affect? How does Union form better/begin to form relationships with the other communities and with the people that call this neighborhood home for more than the time it takes to get a degree?