The Office of Sustainability and Community Engagement closes 

In an email to faculty, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette announced that the Office of Sustainability and Community Engagement was closed. Three people were terminated from the office. Student workers, both undergraduate and graduate, were reassigned to other departments. The sustainability office website was down as of this story’s creation. Currently, the site states, “Sustainability efforts and community partnerships will continue through other campus units and initiatives.” 

Lola Lancaster, an undergraduate student worker for the office, recalled the moment she found out the office was closed. While walking past the sustainability office towards her car, with the intention of leaving campus for an event, Lancaster noticed faculty from her work study loading boxes into cars. 

Lancaster said she hoped at that moment they didn’t need her help for anything because she was already running late for her event. Unbeknownst to her, the office where she had worked for three years was closed, and her coworkers were clearing out their office. 

“I don’t know. It just felt very… it was really ugly,” Lancaster said after describing the moment. 

Lancaster was then beckoned over by her coworkers and learned about the office’s closure. She said it was a tearful and emotional goodbye as everyone continued to pack their things. On the topic of her time at the office, Lancaster said the staff were some of the best people she’d ever worked with, making the Office of Sustainability and Community Engagement her favorite job she’d ever worked. 

“I’ve never seen anyone care about the University more than those three people specifically,” Lancaster added, referring to Gretchen Vanicor, the director, Blair Begnaud, the assistant director and Jonathan Brown, the coordinator for the office. 

In 2013, former President Dr. Joseph Savoie created the office and named Vanicor as the University’s first director of the office in January, 2014. The office worked on making the UL Lafayette campus more environmentally friendly and offering community service opportunities to students through various partnerships across campus. 

Most notably, the office held Fête de la Terre week, with several events celebrating Earth Day, during the month of April. Last year’s events included a tour of Louisiana’s Recycling Facility, a pollinator habitat planting, a night market for students and local vendors to sell and buy their products and group bike rides to events Downtown and at Moncus Park, among more. For 2025, the week-long celebration was expanded to a month. 

Another important event by the office was Krewe de Coulee, a community opportunity service for students to pick up trash after Mardi Gras events. The office also worked in conjunction with the event’s executive board to organize The Big Event, UL Lafayette’s largest community service event of the year. Thousands of students, faculty and staff come together for one day of community service for the local community. 

During football games, the office had recycling bins out for attendees to recycle their trash. The office also worked on pedestrian and bicycle safety on campus. Other duties of the office included maintaining the flood-preventative rain gardens around Wharton Hall and Judice Rickels Hall and taking out the recycling bags around various campus departments. 

Lancaster’s job for the office included managing flower beds, running errands, communicating with other departments and, later in her time at the office, programming and planning events. Though she was assigned to the office, she said she “learned a passion for sustainability” through her work there. 

Even though the University said it will reassign the office’s plans and initiatives to other departments, Lancaster is worried many of the operations of the office will begin to be neglected. “It’s like, there’s so many things that are just going to kind of start falling apart or they’ll get reassigned,” she said. 

Most of the work by the office, other than large events, were likely to go unnoticed by students and faculty, but in 2021, the sustainability efforts by the office were recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Lancaster also explained that the University was a leader in sustainability among other universities in the state as a part of the University Sustainability Coalition. The coalition is a part of Keep Louisiana Beautiful, an organization for sustainability in the state. 

“And to go from, in my opinion, the best in the state to completely nothing at all, it was really shocking not only to our own campus community, but across the state. I think there are going to be repercussions for that.” 

The University’s communication office said, “As part of its efforts to strengthen University finances and streamline operations, the University closed the Office of Sustainability and Community Engagement. When practical, other departments and units that coordinate student engagement, volunteerism and community outreach are absorbing the office’s responsibilities.

Environmental compliance and operational sustainability functions are being consolidated within the Office of Facility Management, which records and monitors the University’s utility systems, including water, electricity and natural gas use. The data those systems generate were previously compiled and analyzed by the Office of Sustainability. Facility Management will now continue that process internally. In addition, the office has assumed responsibility for managing the University’s stormwater discharge permit, hazardous waste disposal and recycling program.

Sustainable environmental practices remain an institutional value, and the University will continue to promote conservation, efficiency and stewardship across all campus operations.”