UM and the pinelands
By selling land to build a Walmart on land that was given to the University of Miami at no cost and entrusted to its care and stewardship, the university is sending a clear message to its biology, zoology, botany and environmental-science students and professors.
It is telling them in no uncertain terms that if promoting understanding and knowledge of vital environmental issues is important to them, if preserving environmentally sensitive ecosystems is something that they value, if they care about the preservation of rare and endangered species, then the University of Miami doesn’t share and, indeed, emphatically rejects those values.
What the university cares about is money and as much of it as it can get.
Ernest Lent, Cutler Bay
This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 3:00 PM with the headline "UM and the pinelands."