Student Spotlight: Kat Leigh ’15

Author: Sydney Reade

Kat Leigh ‘15 had only one wish for her birthday this year – that the University Assembly support Cornell’s divestment from fossil fuels.

Amid a year fraught with student-wide frustration with the school administration, Cornell’s commitment to sustainability has been a positive step forward for the university. Cornell recently promised to become carbon neutral by 2035 (instead of 2050, as originally planned). For Kat Leigh, a Biology major with minors in International Development and Environment & Resource Economics, the university’s dedication to sustainability was the reason she chose to attend Cornell and was always a source of pride – until now.

At the end of the Spring 2014 semester, the University Assembly (UA) made a resolution not to support Cornell’s divestment from fossil fuels. For those of you that don’t know, the UA is a voting and legislative body comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as of faculty and employees. It has “legislative authority over policies which guide the activities of the Departments of Transportation, Religious Affairs, Health Services, the Campus Store…[and] for those aspects of the conduct of members of Cornell University now covered by the Campus Code of Conduct and the Statement of Student Rights,” as stated on its website.

According to Leigh, the UA also has ties to the Board of Trustees. “[The UA] interacts quite frequently with the trustees and [its] role in advising and communicating with the trustees is extremely important because the trustees are the ones providing oversight and suggestions on the direction the university goes,” Leigh explains. Basically, the UA has an enormous influence over Cornell’s affairs.

“It made me feel kind of betrayed by the university,” Leigh says of the resolution. But the end of an academic year was not the right time to rally students to oppose the UA’s move. Leigh wanted to wait until she could make the most impact and “convey a sense of urgency” to raise the issue. February 13, 2015, Global Divestment Day and two days after Leigh’s birthday, she made her move. Publishing a letter addressed to the UA, Leigh outlined Cornell’s rich history of devotion to sustainability and described how its resolution is at odds with a goal that pervades many aspects of our university. She spread her message via a multitude of social media sites, calling for student signatures and support.

As she wrote, “Despite the passing of fossil fuel divestment resolutions by [all other Cornell assemblies] the Cornell University Assembly continues to oppose divestment. I need you to help reconcile these inconsistencies for me. What are Cornell’s values and visions?”

Due to her role as a representative of our university, Leigh is keen on pressing Cornell to articulate one unified objective in response to fossil fuel divestment. In 2014, Cornell selected her to receive a Morris and Stewart Udall Scholarship for her work towards environmental sustainability. Going into a conference as a Udall Scholar following the UA’s resolution, she was conflicted over how to accurately represent Cornell. Leigh remembers this, saying, “All of a sudden, there I was going to this conference [for my sustainability work] and my university just did a very non-sustainable act.”

Other students share Leigh’s confusion and frustration. Within 36 hours of posting her letter,  she received over 100 signatures. Leigh submitted the letter to the UA on Global Divestment Day, but has so far received only an email in response claiming her initiative would be brought to the UA’s attention. She is still continuing her signature campaign, which has now garnered over 200 signatures.

Outside of the divestment issue, Leigh is involved in a number of other sustainability initiatives on campus. She is the founder and president of Green Catch, the sustainable seafood club that focuses on education and advocacy at the local level. As a Sustainability Consultant for the Statler Hotel, Leigh has instituted food recovery practices to reduce waste. Instead of being composted, leftover food is now donated to the hungry in Ithaca. She is also part of the Food Focus Team, a group of people working to formalize sustainable food purchasing protocols across the university.

“Cornell Dining already does quite a lot of work to be sustainable, but it’s not formalized and there’s nothing in place to accelerate the process,” Leigh explains. A kickoff luncheon on February 25 gathered together students, employees, faculty, and administrators to begin formulating these protocols.

Despite this progress, Leigh feels there is still much room for improvement: “There’s lots of things we can make progress on. Our energy use can be reduced in a lot of different ways.” Indeed, there are many organizations on campus working to reduce needless energy use such as the Green Your Office andGreen Your Lab programs.

“One thing that would be nice to see is [a] focus on increasing the energy efficiency of our buildings on campus,” Leigh notes. For example, many of the dorms on campus have single-pane windows, which translate to major heat losses, and thus energy inefficiency in the Ithaca climate. A cost-benefit analysis already determined that replacing the windows with double panes would not be worth any potential energy savings because of the cost of installing the windows. However, according to Leigh, less expensive options exist. “There are window liners that have argon inside them which greatly reduces energy loss. The technology is already there, it’s just a question of having people and institutions prioritize making those transitions – to put action to the things that we value and express that we value them.” It’s no surprise, then, that Leigh’s letter to the UA even includes a note about the “financial feasibility” of divestment.

As for Leigh’s continued passion for sustainable food production, consumption, and disposal practices, she is currently working on Communicate Indonesia, a social venture that aims to create a “cellphone based communication network for rural farmers” in Indonesia to share data and coordinate their farming efforts.

Bettering humanity seems to be a common theme in Leigh’s life; when asked what activity she would add to Cornell’s 161 list, it would be to “improve the lives of your fellow Cornellians.”

“Everyone can make a difference. There’s nothing stopping you from trying to change something, so why hesitate?” Well said, Kat. Well said.

Kat Leigh, student spotlight, sustainability