Early in the fall 2025 semester, Jackson Halsey found, to his surprise, that he was a member of Andrews University’s Creation Care Council. After being signed up late the previous semester by Jacob Kwon, then-president of the Andrews University Student Association (AUSA), the second-year psychology major found a mysterious email in his inbox from AU President John Wesley Taylor V himself containing an invite to a Zoom meeting.
“He [Kwon] was like, ‘Hey, they want me to find somebody for this. You can do it, right?’ I'm like, ‘What?’ He's like, ‘You got it.’ I'm like, ‘What?’ And then I started getting emails for it.”
The Creation Care Council is something of a mystery, even to Halsey, who himself is part of the organization. Indeed, the council remains largely unknown to many students at Andrews University. Several have not even heard of it. It begs the question: What is the Creation Care Council, and why is there so little known about it?
The Creation Care Council is a collection of on-campus environment-oriented groups that report directly to the university president. Their marketing is minimal, and their projects are still largely conceptual, limiting student awareness of the organization. It has only existed for roughly 2 years, being announced in early 2024, but many of its programs predate its creation, according to Halsey. One of its projects is to spread awareness to students of these efforts in “creation care”, which has been met with mixed results.
Katherine Koudele, chair of the Department of Agriculture and spokesperson for the Creation Care Council, described its structure: “There are several action groups within the council that are looking at different things like renewable energy, waste management, waste reduction, recycling, biodiversity, grant funding.”
Halsey said, “It’s like an umbrella that is over all of these groups that do different things. The recycling group, the wind turbine group, the grounds, they’re doing things for the campus.”
The Creation Care Council is not a deliberative body. The action groups do not collaborate on projects. Halsey described the extent of inter-group interaction as, “people are definitely complimenting each other and saying, ‘Oh, great job on this, this is so amazing,’ and, ‘How is this going?’ and patting each other on the back,” though he added that individuals may join other projects if they desire.
Rather, the council functions to inform the president of environmental efforts on campus, even convening at the president’s leisure. Meetings occur in breaks in the president’s schedule, according to Koudele. “The first year, we probably met four or five times, maybe. That was the year of ‘24. This year, we've only met three times.”
Further hindering the Council is the cost of projects. Koudele described several action groups that had ground to a halt in their plans due to finances, primarily on large projects, such as a solar energy farm and a recycling plant on campus. Less ambitious projects, such as social media and education, had better success. This is not to discredit the council entirely; however, Halsey revealed the council has secured funds to construct a hydroelectric generator in the St. Joseph River, to be installed in more temperate weather.
In a survey sent out in fall of 2025, of which 250 students of a campus of roughly 3,000 participated (approximately 8%), one section regarded Andrews University’s efforts in “creation care”. Koudele, who helped design the survey, provided its results, shown below.
Besides this, there has been little advertising for the council. In conversation with students, it shows. Many either had heard of the council but knew little of its duties, or had never heard of it at all.
This is not to say that students have not noticed change at all, even if they cannot attribute it to any particular source. Amanda Koster, a senior education major, said, “I've seen it with their use of paper straws at the Gazebo, pledging to not waste food at the cafe, and using real dishes, silverware and cups at the cafe on most days. During the pandemic, a lot of plastic was used for plates and silverware, presumably because they didn't have dishwashers and enough staff at that time. It’s a step up from then.”
For all, Halsey still doesn’t understand about the Creation Care Council, he ultimately believes it’s a positive influence, saying, “I think that it's a good thing in the sense that it's a group that's doing good things for the campus.”
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.