University President Mary Sue Coleman will soon receive one more letter in her mailbox.

The Student Sustainability Initiative — a conjunction of campus group leaders, student governments and environmental groups — plans to send a letter to Coleman within the next few weeks encouraging her to take a firmer stance on sustainability initiatives. But before they do, the organization is contacting student group leaders this month to garner collective support for the letter titled the “Vision Letter.”

The SSI — which conducts meetings for members of the University community to present suggestions for campus sustainability — has been working for several months to draft the letter.

Rackham student Devi Glick, who studies in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and is a member of SSI, said she hopes the letter will encourage Coleman to further her commitment to sustainability.

“Coleman is always saying that she wants to hear what the students want, she wants to see students work for something,” Glick said. “She’s not going to go out and initiate it if there isn’t demonstrative student support.”

The letter doesn’t make new propositions, Glick said, but instead pushes for the University to take stronger stances on current sustainability operations throughout campus.

“We took the goals that are already being discussed, and this letter basically encourages them to be aggressive and bold with whatever they want these goals to be,” Glick said. “The value added in this letter wasn’t something new, it was us saying, ‘Don’t just do what you’re on track to do, but do something that really shows leadership.’”

Glick said the organization has been successful so far in generating support for sustainability efforts on campus. She credited the SSI’s involvement with the yearlong Campus Sustainability Integrated Assessment project, which is a combined effort between the SSI, the Office of Campus Sustainability and the Graham Sustainability Institute to evaluate sustainability on campus. At the end of the semester, the partnership plans to present a recommendation report to Coleman on how to improve the University’s sustainability efforts.

Glick said the SSI is hoping the letter will benefit from the “momentum” and “involvement” generated by the Integrated Assessment project.

Glick said the group’s letter isn’t meant to be critical of University administrators, but it is intended to further the University’s commitment to sustainability.

“The tone of it is completely positive because (Coleman) responds to positiveness and student encouragements, so we’re not going to write a letter that’s negative or critical because that’s not the correct venue, and that’s not how we see it,” Glick said.

Glick said Coleman’s support is vital to foster the growth of a more sustainable campus.

“A lot of the changes that are needed are operational things at the University,” she said. “Those aren’t things that a club would raise money for. Those are things that the University has to provide the money to do.”

The organization’s letter will demonstrate to Coleman that students are passionate about sustainability efforts, Alexander said.

“I think what President Coleman is looking for is a well-rounded look at sustainability, so that it’s not just the faculty or the operating people on campus, but that it’s also the students that are involved,” he said. “So I think this letter will be very effective in showing that we’ve had this broad cooperation between the major groups on campus.”