In a matter of weeks, after serving as Sustainability Director for six years at DePauw, Carol Steele will retire at the end of this academic year.
She and her husband, Director of the Prindle Institute for Ethics Bob Steele, are set to move to Colorado once the year wraps up in order to spend more time with their children and grandchildren.
“I don’t like the ‘r’ word as they refer to it,” Steele said of retirement. “Well I don’t know exactly what the next part of my life is going to be. It’s been a great experience [at DePauw].”
The Sustainability Director position was created for Steele, and contracts are in the works for current Assistant Sustainability Director Anthony Barrata to take her place next year.
“We’re in negotiations for me to become the director, so that has not happened yet but we’re discussing it,” Barrata said.
Despite her aversion to the word ‘retirement,’ Steele is proud of the work that she has done here and she is grateful for all that she has been able to do at DePauw.
“I think I have been most appreciative for the opportunities which have been given to me here,” she said. “I’ve done a lot, helped people write proposals, helped students on academic probation or having other issues in their lives. I think it has been very rewarding and satisfying.”
Steele has also been involved in starting up a lot of ‘green’ initiatives on campus, according to Barrata.
As sustainability director, one of Steele’s major initiatives has been the campus farm, which has been in operation since last year. The farm supplies the university with fresh vegetables, and students and faculty volunteer to cultivate the plants.
“The campus farm would not exist without Carol Steele,” Barrata said. “We worked very hard on coordinating a plan and figuring out our carbon footprint.”
Senior Allison Orjala has been interning as an ITAP intern for the Office of Sustainability for three years, and she believes Steele to be one of the most inspirational figures she has encountered at DePauw.
“Carol [Steele] is a wonderful human being to work with,” Orjala said. “She’s really supportive, really passionate about the things that she does. She doesn’t just pick up a project just because.”
Orjala referenced Steele’s work on the campus farm as an example of a project that Steele is passionate about and that she puts her heart and soul into.
Other projects that Steele has spearheaded include getting rental bikes on campus for students to check out and the energy wars competition, in which Greek chapters and dorms compete for a three-week period to determine who can conserve the most energy.
She also wrote a grant in order to put recycling bins in all of the Greek houses, and she was a leader in bringing the Environmental Fellows program to DePauw, according to Barrata.
One of the newer programs that Steele has instilled is the ‘move out program,’ which allows students to donate items that they no longer need and do not want to take home with them at the end of the year. Instead of cluttering up the dumpsters and landfills, these items are donated to Putnam County Family Support Services, the human society, senior centers and more. This year the goal is to donate items to 100 families.
“We’ll have these raised recycling boxes,” Barrata said. “They will go to the dorms tomorrow and pick up will start a week from tomorrow.”
Orjala said Steele has not just helped DePauw in terms of starting environmental initiatives, however. She believes that Steele’s interaction with students has made her just as effective at her job as any of the tangible work that she has done.
“Through her personal experiences she tries to find that connection with whoever she’s working with,” Orjala said. “Carol Steele loves to talk. She is a great conversationalist, and that comes out in her relationships.”
Both Barrata and Orjala agree that Steele will be missed. As a senior, Orjala is excited to begin the next phase of her life at the same time that the Steeles are beginning theirs.
“I can’t imagine DePauw without them,” she said. “Without the Steeles, without Carol, without Bob, my DePauw experience would have been completely different, so for that reason I’m really glad that I’m leaving at the same time they are.”
While Steele said that she will miss DePauw, she is excited for the next chapter of her life, and she is proud of the mark that she will be leaving on DePauw’s campus.