The Inspiration of Rachel Carson, '29
We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was born in 1907, in a small town near Pittsburgh. In 1929, she graduated from the Pennsylvania College For Women (now Chatham University) with a degree in biology. In 1962, Rachel started a conversation that would reverberate across the globe for decades to come: She published Silent Spring.
Silent Spring is widely credited with igniting the modern environmental movement. Time magazine named Rachel to their list of the 100 Most Influential People—and 25 Most Powerful Women--of the 20th Century, and she is considered by many to be preeminent environmental icon.
For half a century, Carson has been the patron saint of Chatham University. Just as Silent Spring singlehandedly inspired the environmental movement, Carson herself invigorated the Chatham mission.
“We claim Rachel Carson,” said Esther L. Barazzone, President of Chatham University, “but what does that mean? How are we going to live up to her legacy? One of my favorite lines is, ‘You need to have visible symbols of grace,’ which is a quote from Martin Luther. What is our visible symbol of grace?”
The answer: sustainability, a groundbreaking new field that has transformed how environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and engineers approach 21st century challenges.
Through our Falk School of Sustainability, students and faculty are re-examining the systems that underpin not just human life, but all life—including food, water, and energy. With the completion of our net zero Eden Hall Campus, we have a living and learning laboratory for sustainability, and the first of its kind in the world. Sustainability has been adopted as a core component of our university mission. We’ve implemented sustainable practices across all of our locations, and we introduce undergraduates to the field through a course and through an Eden Hall experience, regardless of their major. This approach creates a shared campus experience and helps integrate sustainability into other areas of study in the health and lab sciences, business and communications, and arts and humanities.
With inspiration from Rachel Carson, our efforts and commitments have earned us recognition as a leader in sustainability, including a Top 50 Green College ranking by the Princeton Review, a spot on Sierra magazine’s list of top 25 “cool schools” and a mention in Forbes as one of the places “contributing to Pittsburgh’s transformation into a destination for green living.”
Chatham University. It’s not just Earth Day. It’s every day.