The Boston Area Student Environmental Coalition’s (BASEC) call for greater environmental responsibility from Boston’s colleges and universities has been echoed by five Boston University student governments, whose leaders recently signed a petition recognizing ‘a social responsibility to lead the way in protecting the environment.’

The petition was signed by the Sargent Student Government’s Linda Oliveira, the Student Union e-board’s Ethan Clay, the College of Communication Student Assembly’s Dan Lombard, the School of Education’s Leah Glazer and the University Professors Student Government’s Aaron Michel, who is the director of BASEC.

The document pledges to support the purchases of recycled paper, recognizes the vast consumption of paper products by students and claims that by purchasing recycled paper, BU will assert itself as an ‘environmentally conscious university,’ as well as help create a demand for recycled paper.

Michel, former president of BU’s Environmental Student Organization, said BASEC has spoken with the Provost Dennis Berkey, deans and other members of the administration, and most of the audience was enthusiastic.

‘The administration was receptive, and everyone was on our side, at least in theory. But they are unwilling to take a stand,’ Michel said. ‘It’s tough to find champions there.’

However, throughout the city and commonwealth, BASEC has received more vocal support. City councilor Mike Ross (Back Bay, Fenway) and state representative Paul Demakis have written letters of support to BASEC, giving the program support from both students and politicians.

Michel has overseen the successful environmental progress of many Boston colleges, including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he said BU is far behind most Boston schools in terms of environmental awareness.

For instance, Tufts University mandates of all the paper its departments purchase, 30 percent must be recycled. In 1999, MIT student activism resulted in the administration’s formal encouragement of its departments to buy recycled paper; by 2001, 50 to 75 percent of MIT’s paper purchases were recycled.

In contrast, BU’s recycled paper purchases make up only 4 percent of its total purchase. Statistics show that between the months of July and February of the 2002-2003 school year, only 200 out of the total 5,000 cases of paper BU purchased were recycled.

‘BU is making progress,’ Michel said, ‘but we are way behind.’

If BU is developmentally and ideologically behind the many colleges in the Boston area with which it is competing, environmentally conscious high school seniors might opt to go to a ‘greener’ college, such as Tufts University, Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michel said.