It’s no secret that severe weather events are increasing with the impact of climate change. Colgate University and the surrounding community have been experiencing heavy rain events and increased flooding for the past two decades.
John Pumilio, associate provost for sustainability, recalls the disruptive rain event during finals week of the 2013 spring semester, when flooding overwhelmed the Newell Apartment parking lot and students had to canoe past partially submerged cars to access the Community Garden.
“Students were trying to focus on their finals, on moving out and post-Colgate plans, and there was flooding that was happening,” says Pumilio, who came to Colgate in 2009 to do climate mitigation work — and quickly added climate resiliency to his portfolio. “We have to anticipate these events and not be reactive, reducing the level of disruption, if not avoiding it altogether.”
With these goals in mind, the University, along with the town and village of Hamilton, undertook a Climate Resilience Assessment, beginning in the spring of 2021.
“The Climate Resilience Assessment asks: How are we doing at thinking about what climate change is coming to our community in the next 50 years, and what do we need to do to be ready for that? What resources are already in place, and what do we need to do differently?” says Andrew Pattison, an associate professor of environmental studies who worked on the assessment.
The 68-page report, released last fall and circulated throughout the academic year, indicates that Colgate and the surrounding area are vulnerable to impacts from extreme weather events, including flooding, drought, and severe storms. These types of events threaten the area’s infrastructure, the public health of students and residents, and economic stability.
The good news is that the report also found that the community is already addressing these threats. Colgate has been recognized by the National Weather Service as a StormReady® campus for the past two years, and both the town and the village of Hamilton earned a Climate Smart Community designation from New York State in 2020 and have maintained it since.
That’s just two of a myriad of indicators of climate resilience in the report. Others include statistics on occurrences of heat exhaustion and dehydration, tracking local forest health and species diversity, ensuring a diverse energy supply for the campus, creating retention ponds to manage floodwaters, and planning road upgrades in the village to maintain safety and economic stability even in the face of weather events.
The assessment is the culmination of years of research and data collection done in collaboration with the surrounding community. Professors like Pattison embed research projects into the curriculum of their environmental studies classes, simultaneously helping Colgate and its neighbors build climate resilience while giving students valuable real-world experience.
Nor is this the first time that collaboration has proved fruitful between campus and community. Colgate student research was essential in earning and maintaining the Climate Smart Community certification for the town and the village.
RuthAnn Loveless, a resident of Hamilton for more than 55 years, has served as mayor for the last eight. “To do it ourselves, we would not be able to,” says Loveless, who in 2011 retired from a 27-year career at Colgate as VP of Alumni Affairs. “It would be impossible for us, even though we are intellectually committed to it.”
Chris Rossi, a former member of the Hamilton Town Council and co-chair of the Hamilton Climate Preparedness Working Group, agrees and praises the students’ engagement with their research.
“Their expertise, their knowledge, their enthusiasm, and their professionalism are really inspiring,” she says.
Pumilio says the students are motivated by the impact they can make on their campus and its local community.
“We often find that students really care about Colgate and want to contribute in some way to the betterment of the University,” he says. “Our community garden, for example, was a student research project. Our Green Bikes Program, our electronic waste recycling program, some of our climate action work — we’ve just had so many projects over the years that originated from student research.”
One of those students was Aaron Tanaka ’21, whose work informed the assessment of climate vulnerabilities, such as road damage and floodwater management in the village.
“Assessments like these help make sure that the people who need [relief] funds the most get the funds and are able to either be resilient or recover from the effects of climate change,” says Tanaka.
In the fall of 2023, Gray Purcell ’24 enrolled in the Community-Based Study of Environmental Issues course and conducted research about how well the campus community is prepared for climate change. She and her classmates proposed many of the metrics used in the Climate Resilience Assessment.
“It made it so much more exciting and meaningful to do the reading, the background research, the late-night citations in the library, the interviews, knowing that it was contributing to the greater good,” says Purcell.
Going forward, the University, village, and town will address inadequacies indicated in the report — elements of emergency preparedness, local infrastructure, and social equity, as well as the impact of climate events on local agriculture, which is central to the area’s economy. Next up will be a Climate Adaptation Plan and updates to the University’s strategic plan, all informed by the data and research in the Climate Resilience Assessment.
— Maura Sullivan Hill