Abstract
The climate protection movement in American academia is formalized in the American University and College Presidents’ Climate Commitment. As of January 2011, 676 college presidents signed on to the commitment, but there are thousands of U.S. college presidents who have not, and there is some evidence that public opinion on the need for climate protection is fickle. Extending the climate protection movement in the future will depend on understanding a multitude of factors affecting the decisions of college leaders. In this study, we hypothesize that three geographic factors could influence campus leadership: the cost of electricity in the state, the state's level of commitment to renewable energy, and the percentage of jobs in coal mines and power plants in the state. We tested the hypotheses using a Mann-Whitney U test and found significant relationships. We discuss the results and their implications for the future of the climate protection movement.
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